keith margam
Vital Football Legend
Portsmouth v Swansea Wed 1 Jan 2025 15:00
So, two home wins from two games over the Xmas period. The last one against Luton was a hard fought one, let’s hope it hasn’t taken too much energy out of the players, with little respite between games so close together.
Next up is Portsmouth away on New Years Day. Last season they won the League One title with 97 points, 5 points clear of Derby and 20 points clear of play-off winners Oxford.
Surprisingly this season in the Championship they are struggling below Derby and Oxford in the table and are bottom but one with 4 wins and 8 draws from 22 games.
Home form is their strongest with 3 defeats from 10 games. Last home match was a 4-1 win against Coventry, Callum Lang scoring all four goals. Their home support is impressive with over 20k crowds every match. My stand-out memory of Fratton Park in my one visit was that they only served soft drinks in the away end.
Ominously, local man James Linington is referee for this match, he lives on Isle of Wight, a ten minute hop on the ferry. He has refereed Portsmouth three times and they’ve won 3 times, according to his profile on transfermarkt.
Older fans will remember Linington was the infamous referee for our Carling Cup home game in 2009 against Scunthorpe, where he sent off three of our players and we were reduced to seven men when Dobbie went off injured and all subs had been used. He made injured player Idrizaj, who was incapable of taking part, come back on the field to make up the minimum eight players allowed so the match could finish the final minutes of extra time. The game ended in a 1-2 defeat for Swansea, with one of the Scunthorpe goals a dubious penalty for hand-ball against Tate.
The fourth official Andy Davies is also a Hampshire man and is an ex-Portsmouth player. He refereed the Swans v Sunderland game two weeks ago.
Another tough encounter is expected and hopefully the players are up for it.
So, two home wins from two games over the Xmas period. The last one against Luton was a hard fought one, let’s hope it hasn’t taken too much energy out of the players, with little respite between games so close together.
Next up is Portsmouth away on New Years Day. Last season they won the League One title with 97 points, 5 points clear of Derby and 20 points clear of play-off winners Oxford.
Surprisingly this season in the Championship they are struggling below Derby and Oxford in the table and are bottom but one with 4 wins and 8 draws from 22 games.
Home form is their strongest with 3 defeats from 10 games. Last home match was a 4-1 win against Coventry, Callum Lang scoring all four goals. Their home support is impressive with over 20k crowds every match. My stand-out memory of Fratton Park in my one visit was that they only served soft drinks in the away end.
Ominously, local man James Linington is referee for this match, he lives on Isle of Wight, a ten minute hop on the ferry. He has refereed Portsmouth three times and they’ve won 3 times, according to his profile on transfermarkt.
Older fans will remember Linington was the infamous referee for our Carling Cup home game in 2009 against Scunthorpe, where he sent off three of our players and we were reduced to seven men when Dobbie went off injured and all subs had been used. He made injured player Idrizaj, who was incapable of taking part, come back on the field to make up the minimum eight players allowed so the match could finish the final minutes of extra time. The game ended in a 1-2 defeat for Swansea, with one of the Scunthorpe goals a dubious penalty for hand-ball against Tate.
The fourth official Andy Davies is also a Hampshire man and is an ex-Portsmouth player. He refereed the Swans v Sunderland game two weeks ago.
Another tough encounter is expected and hopefully the players are up for it.
