Next up if you haven’t already guessed it are Portsmouth with the Cowley brothers at the helm and just in case you have missed it, we kick off at 12-30.The reverse of this fixture way back at the start of the season still sticks in my mind, we dominated possession in the high 70% area at times, we battered them in front of goal with 18 shots, 6 of which were on target, we had 13 corners as we piled the pressure on, their keeper had a cracking day making save after save, we were one down with hardly a minute on the clock, then we got done with a dodgy penalty. As I recall I felt that we had been mugged that day, we played so well and came away with nothing to show, and if I remember correctly so impressed were Pompey fans with the “MK Way” that all of a sudden Russ was being linked to replace the under fire Kenny Jackett.
PORTSMOUTH – THE SEASON SO FAR – Pompey are currently in 6th place in the league table with a record of PLAYED 39, WON 19, DRAWN 8, LOST 13, GF 57 & GA 42 and 65 POINTS.
LEAGUE RESULTS 2020/21
Crewe 0 Portsmouth 0
Wigan 0 Portsmouth 1
Shrewsbury 1 Portsmouth 2
Peterborough 1 Portsmouth 0
Northampton 4 Portsmouth 1
Doncaster 2 Portsmouth 1
Oxford 0 Portsmouth 1
Bristol Rovers 3 Portsmouth 1
Charlton 1 Portsmouth 3
Fleetwood 0 Portsmouth 1
Hull 0 Portsmouth 2
Ipswich 0 Portsmouth 2
Blackpool 1 Portsmouth 0
Plymouth 2 Portsmouth 2
Lincoln 1 Portsmouth 3
Sunderland 1 Portsmouth 3
Gillingham 0 Portsmouth 2
Burton Albion 2 Portsmouth 4
Rochdale 0 Portsmouth 0
An AWAY record of PLAYED 19, WON 11, DRAWN 3, LOST 5, GF 29 & GA 19.
LEAGUE FORM AT A GLANCE – WWWWLD
YEAR OF FORMATION – 1898
CLUB NICKNAME – Pompey
THE MANAGER – Danny Cowley aged 42 born in Havering, London.
His youth career as a midfielder kicked off at Wimbledon, but he never played first team football in fact he never played in the Football League from what I can find. The teams I can find the records are worse than poor, so I cant give you goals or appearances just to tell you he has represented in the past Dagenham & Redbridge, Purfleet, Barking Town, Harlow Town, Boreham Wood, Romford, Hornchurch, Brentwood Town, and Concord Rangers.
Cowley started managing at Concord Rangers in 2007, first as the assistant and then a year later as the gaffer. He has also managed Braintree Town, Lincoln City where he first made his name pushing the then non-league side to become the first to reach the quarter finals of the FA Cup. He left Lincoln to takeover at Huddersfield and although he kept them up by the skin of their teeth he was sacked two days later, the Chairman claiming he had a different vision for the club and that didn’t include Cowley.He was appointed as the Pompey manager in March 2021 on a short term contract until the end of the season after Kenny Jackett was relieved of his duties.
He has a remarkable record as a manager boasting a WIN RATIO of 51% over 663 games with a record of WON 342, DRAWN 148, LOST 173.
FORMER MANAGERS – Kenny Jackett was the 48th manager at Pompey with many famous names once being in charge, there have also been 8 caretaker managers, to name a few we have, former assistant and temporary manager at MK Richie Barker, Gary Waddock, Guy Whittingham, Steve Cotterill, Avram Grant, Paul Hart, Tony Adams, Harry Redknapp on two occasions, Joe Jordan, Graham Rix, Steve Claridge, Tony Pullis, Bob McNab, Alan Ball, Terry Fenwick, Jim Smith, John Gregory, Graham Paddon and Ian St John.
FORMER PLAYERS – Again, plenty of famous names that have once graced the turf at Fratton Park including Darren Anderton, Dave Beasant, Andy Cole, Mick Channon, Peter Crouch, Sol Campbell, Jermain Defoe, Justin Edinburgh, Gerry Francis, the famous sporting all-rounder C.B Fry who represented England at football, rugby union and cricket and jointly held the long jump world record, Glen Johnson, Chris Kamara, Paul Mariner, Paul Merson, Teddy Sheringham and Ron Saunders.
PLAYED FOR BOTH – Carl Baker, Scott Allan, Ben Chorley, Matty Kennedy, Kevin Long, Izale McLeod, Bondz N’Gala, Stuart O’Keefe, Nigel Quashie, Rowan Vine, Craig Westcarr, and former MK Boss Martin Allen also used to play for Pompey.
FAMOUS FAN – Probably the most famous Pompey fan of all time is John Portsmouth Football Club Westwood, yes that is his full legal name. He has 60 Portsmouth tattoos’, including PFC engraved on his teeth. You won’t mistake him if you see him, trust me, wearing blue and white from top to toe, a large stove pipe hat, a blue and white wig, large clown type shoes, and incessantly ringing a hand bell. He was once thrown out of arch-rivals Southampton ground for openly urinating over seats in the away end.
THE MASCOT – Nelson the dog.
SHOOTERS BOOTS – John Marquis with 15 goals.
CURRENT MATCH ODDS – MK Dons 9/5 Draw 12/5 Pompey 8/5
LAST TIME ROUND – October 10th, 2020 – Portsmouth 2 MK Dons 1
Team – Nicholls, Williams, Keogh, Lewington, Sorinola (Sorenson), Thompson (Houghton), Kasumu, Fraser, Cargill, Nombe (Jerome), Morris.
Unused Subs – Walker, Bird, Davies, Freeman.
Goals – Naylor 2’, Fraser 12’, Harrison 23’
Referee – Lee Swabey (3 Yellows)
Attendance – Behind Closed Doors.
HEAD 2 HEAD
2020/21 – Portsmouth 2 MK Dons 1 (Fraser)
2019/20 – Portsmouth 3 MK Dons 1 (Gilbey)
2019/20 – MK Dons 3 Portsmouth 1 (Healey, McGrandles, Gilbey)
2017/18 – MK Dons 1 Portsmouth 2 (Ugbo)
2017/18 – Portsmouth 2 MK Dons 0
2012/13 – Portsmouth 1 MK Dons 1 (Williams)
2012/13 – MK Dons 2 Portsmouth 2 (Own Goal, Potter)
