Portsmouth History

• April 5 , 1898 – was founded by 5 sportsmen and businessmen at the meeting at Old Portsmouth. Among them were: John Brickwood, who became the first chairman, George Oliver, Alfred Bone, John Peters, William Wiggintone. Fred Brettell was appointed manager. Some people believe that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the first goalkeeper of the club
• September 2, 1899 – the club was successful and entered the Southern League. The first match took place at Chatham Town. The result of the game was 1-0 victory.
• September 5, 1899 – the first home match at Fratton Park was against Southampton F.C. This first season for the team was successful, they won 20 out of 28 league matches. The club became the Southern League runners-up.
• 1901 – 1902 – this season was prominent for winning the league for the first time in club’s history. Bob Blyth took over a post of manager.
• 1906 – 1907 – Manchester United visited Fratton Park in the FA Cup. As a result a record crowd of 24,329 people attended the game. After a replay Portsmouth defeated Manchester United 2-1.
• 1910 - 1911 -the team was relegated to the Second Division of the Southern League and Bob Brown was recruited as a manager.
• 1911 – the club had financial problems and they decided to organize “Portsmouth City Football Club Limited”. Pompey’s captain was A.E. Knight and his assistant was Jack Warner. After World War I the Blues won the Southern League for the second time.
• 1920 – 1921 – after the formation of the Third Division the club was taken to it. This season Robert Brown was replaced by John McCartney and the Blues finished 12th.
• 1923 – 1924 – Pompey won the league.
• 1926 – 1927 - the club finished second in Division Two and won promotion by beating Notts County with a record 9-1 score.
• 1928 – 1929 – the debut season in the First Division was a struggle. They lost 10-0 to Leicester City. It was a record defeat. Nevertheless the Blues reached the FA Cup final for the first time, but they were defeated by Bolton Wanderers.
• 1930 – 1931 – the team reached the 4th place.
• 1933 – 1934 – Pompey reached the FA Cup final again, but they lost to Manchester City. Allen was transferred to Aston Villa for a British record fee of £10,775. The money was used on development of the stadium. The capacity of a new North Stand was increased to 58,000
• 1938 – 1939 – the club reached FA Cup Final. For this time they became champions, took a 4-1 victory over Wolves.
• 1942 – Pompey reached London War Cup Final, but lost to Brentford with a score 2-0 at Wembley. The team signed various players. Among them was Andy Black who scored 8 goals in a 16 – 1 thrashing of Clapton Orient.
• 1948 – 1949 – the club was a champion of the First Division. Also they won FA Cup double but were defeated by Leicester City in the semi-final. This season was prominent for a record attendance of 51,385.
• 1949 – 1950 – the title was regained. The last day of the season Portsmouth beat Aston Villa 5-1.
• 1951 – 1952 – the team finished in 4th place.
• 1954 – 1955 – the club reached the 3d place.
• 1959 – unfortunately Pompey were relegated to the Second Division.
• April, 1961 – Portsmouth went down to the Third Division . George Smith was appointed manager. He was one of the best coaches and was famous for his strict discipline. Due to his form of training and new signings (Tony Barton, Dave Dodson) club was stabilized and then got a promotion back to the Second Division.
• April, 1970 – George Smith became General Manager. Ron Tindell took over a post of the manager.
• 1972 – John Deacon became a chairman. In spite of such signings as: Peter Marinello, Ron Davies, Phil Roberts, Paul Went, Malcom Manley the club wasn’t improve its position.
• 1973 – John Mortimore was a new manager, but he was replaced by Ian St John in 1974. St John refresh the squad by free transfers: Graeme Lloyd, Bobby McGuinness, Alan Kane, Paul Chahill.
• 1976 – they were relegated to the Third Division. The club’s financial situation was bad. They found itself needing to raise £25,000 to pay off debts.
• 1978 – the relegation to the Fourth Division. Frank Burrows took over a position of manager in 1979.
• Portsmouth – the club was promoted back to the Third Division.
• 1980 – 1981 – the club finished 6th and the next season 13th.
• March, 1982 – Bobby Campbell became a new manager. He signed young players such as: Neil Webb, Alan Biley.
• 1982 – 1983 -eventually Pompey won the Third Division title and gained promotion back to the Second Division.
• 1984 – Alan Ball was appointed manager. Under his direction the club became the Second Division champion and was promoted to the First Division.
• 1987 – 1988 – the result of financial trouble was a relegation to the Second Division.
• 1988 – Jim Gregory (London businessman) became a new owner of the club.
• 1991 – 1992 – Pompey reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, but were defeated by Liverpool after a replay. Jim Smith took over a post of manager.
• 1992 – 1993 – the club wasn’t promoted to the the FA Premier League.
• 1995 – Terry Fenwick became a new manager. The club won away to Huddersfield Town and avoided a relegation.
• 1996 – Terry Venables bought the club for £1. Portsmouth defeated Leeds United in their run to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, but the club finished just short of the qualifying places for the play-offs for promotion to the Premier League.
• 1997 – 1998 – Venables signed Australian players and faced with disapproval of fans. The result of the team weren’t successful. Terry Venables sold the club to Martin Gregory, the son of Jim Gregory. Alan Ball was appointed manager for the second time.
• 1998 – 1999 – Pompey had financial problems. Milan Mandaric saved the club and became a chairman. The position of the club didn’t improve and Ball was sacked in November 1999.
• 2000 – Tony Pulis took over a post of manager but after ten month was was dismissed and Steve Claridge was brought in. He also didn’t avoid a horrific run of defeats.
• March, 2001 – Graham Rix appointed as manager. Pompey won a final match and due to this victory the club was saved.
• 2002 – 2003 – Harry Redknapp became a new manager. He signed such experienced Premiership players as: Steve Stone, Patrik Berger, Tim Sherwood and Paul Merson.
• 2002 – 2003 – eventually the club reached Division One final and beating Leicester City got Champion title for the third time in their history.
• November, 2003 – Pompey defeated 6-1 Leeds United at Fratton Park.
• April, 2003 – famous 1-0 victory over Manchester United.
• May 15, 2004 - at the end of the season the team beat Middlesbrough with 5-1 score.
• 2004 – 2005 - after first three losses at the beginning of the season the club won a match against Fulham 4-3 and against Crystal Palace 3-1.
• October, 2004 – a 2-0 victory over Manchester United at Fratton Park.
• 2004 – Velimir Zajec was appointed as manager. The first match under Velimir Zajec was a 1-0 away win over Bolton Wanderers. By the end of March after a poor results Portsmouth was in 15th position. Velimir Zajec was dismissed and Alain Perrin was brought in.
• April 24, 2005 – a 4-1 victory at home to local rivals Southampton.
• May 15, 2005 – the team was defeated 2-0 by West Bromwich Albion.
• 2005 – 2006 – a 1-0 victory over Everton at Goodison Park, a 4-1 away win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
• October, 2005 – Pompey were beaten 1-0 by Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium.
• December, 2005 – After poor results Alain Perrin was replaced by Harry Redknapp. The club won a game against West Bromwich Albion with 2-1 score. Another 2-1 home victory was over West Ham. These results promoted the team to the 16th place. Unfortunately, they were defeated 3-0 by Manchester United and Liverpool. Then Arsenal beat the club 4-0.
• January, 2006 – Alexandre Gaydamak bought the club and made £15million investment. Benjani Mwaruwari was signed for a record fee of £4.1 million and also Sean Davis, Pedro Mendes, Noé Pamarot were brought in and Wayne Routledge, Andrés D’Alessandro were taken on loan. But these changes weren’t enough for the team. Pompey were defeated 5-0 by Birmingham City. It was the heaviest defeat to date in the Premiership. Also the team lost 3-1 to Manchested United at Fratton Park.
• April29, 2006 – the club won the penultimate game of the season at Wigan Athletic and in such a way were saved from relegation. Glen Johnson, David James, Sol Campbell, David Thompson were taken to the club. Manuel Fernandes and Roudolphe Douala joined the team on a loan. Niko Kranjcar was signed for £3.5 million from Hajduk Split.
• 2006 – 2007 - this season Pompey were briefly top of the Premiership. This season was prominent for the victories over Manchester United, Everton, Reading, Newcastle United and Liverpool and they gained 54 points from 38 matches. It was the best result of the club in the Premiership.
• 2007 -2008 - at the beginning of this season the team beat Fulham 1-0.
• September 29, 2007 – Reading were defeated 7-4 by Portsmouth at Fratton Park. It was the highest scoring match in Premier League history.