Ecstasy you just can’t buy – or afford, in Pompey’s case

THE FA Cup has always been about misty-eyed memories of the way football used to be, a time when dreams were built on the pitch and not in the boardroom and when fairytales really did happen – even without billionaire benefactors.

And at Fratton Park on Saturday, just for a second, it felt like those halcyon days were back.

On the face of it, Portsmouth are a wreck, decimated by four different owners in the space of a year who have all failed to acknowledge a duty of care to look after one of the most famous old clubs in the game. But over 90 minutes in an FA Cup quarter-final against Birmingham City, all that was forgotten.