Portsmouth 2 Birmingham 0:THIS LITTLE piece of joy on the Hampshire coast has come so late in the general state of affairs that it could almost be described as posthumous; Portsmouth, after all, are hurtling out of the Premier League, possibly in the direction of oblivion.
Even the €776,920 they have now earned in prize money is unlikely to find its way into their coffers because of FA rules regarding clubs in administration – not that that money would have made much of a hole in their reported debts of €94 million.
A week today they have a fixture with Revenue Customs which is likely to go to penalties – of the fiercest kind – and could yet result in the club being wound up.
But on Saturday, thanks to two strikes from Frederic Piquionne, who was striving for a more personal redemption, the club reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the second time in three years.
Avram Grant, who smiles about as readily as Buster Keaton, was almost unrecognisable. But this was a surreal afternoon. “Football is more than football,” he enthused. “Football is good tactics, good style, but the best tactics and the best style without the right spirit will not succeed.
“I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s an amazing situation and it’s something I will keep with me all my life.”
Portsmouth played football on Saturday which at once delighted and frustrated their supporters. On this showing they looked capable of clawing their way off the bottom of the table, but for that looming and inevitable nine-point deduction, that is.
The on-loan French striker Piquionne scored his first in the 67th minute after the ball had been turned into his path by the goalkeeper Joe Hart following an effort from Danny Webber.
Piquionne scored another three minutes later after twice beating a bemused Roger Johnson.
These teams will have to do it all again in the league tomorrow. But it will never be the same as this. Pompey’s plight was best summed up by a message at the front of the programme.
It congratulated Pompey on the “brilliant result at Burnley last week” and the “memorable result” at Southampton in the previous round. “Play up Pompey!” it concluded.
Normally such platitudes are uttered by the club’s manager or chairman. But on Saturday they came from Andrew Andronikou, the joint administrator.
