O’Hara typifies Pompey pride
A mismatch of spindly schoolgirls and chubby teenagers who appeared to be dressed in discarded youth team kit, they looked like they had been dragged off the street minutes earlier – and performed accordingly.
Out of step and out of their depth, they managed to drop each other several times during an ambitious attempt at a human pyramid, and you didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
But they stuck with it, came through, and got a huge cheer from the crowd when they left the pitch. You would need a heart of stone not to warm to them.
And so it goes for the football team. A shambles off the pitch and not much better on it at times, the one thing Portsmouth are rich in is spirit.
A disastrous chain of events since they won the FA Cup final less than two years ago has seen the club battling against bankruptcy all season, had to sell their best players to ease debts, and yet still go into administration, which resulted in the nine-point deduction last week that has effectively sealed their fate.
They may be dead and almost buried, but the heart of the club is still beating, and their fans and players will not allow the life-support systems to be switched off yet.
It would take a miracle to avoid relegation – Portsmouth were 17 points short of safety before kick-off – but they have an FA Cup semi-final coming up in three weeks’ time and something much more important to play for. Pride.
Avram Grant, whose almost permanent hangdog expression befits perfectly his role as manager of this mess, was at pains to clarify his pre-match comments, which were widely interpreted as: “We will put out weakened sides and not bother for the remainder of the season.” What he actually meant, he said, was that the club felt no duty to the Premier League or its integrity, after being punished last week, but that their professionalism and pride would be the spur to keep them going to the end.
And how they showed that against Hull. Twice behind to Caleb Folan’s first Premier League goals since the opening day of last season, they never gave up and fought back to snatch a dramatic victory with two goals in the final three minutes.
“It’s difficult to break the spirit in this team,” said Grant afterwards. “We need to be professional and keep going to the end. I didn’t say we would play a weakened team. I said we had no duty to the Premier League, only to Portsmouth football club.”
No-one summed that up more than O’Hara, who has been the club’s player of the season by some margin, despite being technically a Tottenham player. The young midfielder, who has played for the England U-21 side but is considering taking advantage of FIFA’s rule change, which will allow him to don the green jersey of the Republic of Ireland.
Once again he was Portsmouth’s main man, running the midfield, trying his luck from different ranges and setting up his team-mates. For most of the match he was bumped off free-kick duties by fellow midfielder Marc Wilson, unsuccessfully, but when O’Hara finally got to take one, with Pompey trailing 2-1 and three minutes remaining, he did not disappoint, curling a beauty into the far corner of goal from 25 yards.
That set up a thrilling finale as Portsmouth, roared on by their supporters, grabbed the winner a minute later when Nadir Belhadj crossed for Kanu to shoot home from close range.
“O’Hara has tremendous spirit, but so do all of them,” said Grant. “The Premier League can be proud that this club can be an ambassador, not the people who make decisions in their offices.”
Iain Dowie, meanwhile, is just as full of fighting spirit, and will need to be if his new side is to avoid the same fate as their opponents. Dowie took over from Phil Brown last week with relegation on the horizon, and he is running out of time. Folan’s two goals, either side of a Tommy Smith equaliser, meant that Hull were on the verge of their first league away win for almost a year until that late Portsmouth revival, and Dowie said: “It’s hard to take, like a punch or two in the stomach.
“But I have seen enough in training to give me hope. There is spirit here and I won’t be downbeat. I’ve got to be upbeat and make sure they keep believing.”
But will it be enough?
MATCH RATING: **** -– The quality was as low as you would expect from the bottom two teams, but the drama and excitement built up to a thrilling climax as Portsmouth snatched victory in the final minutes.
REFEREE: Phil Dowd (Staffs) 7 – Controlled the game well and got most of
the big decisions right. Pompey weren’t happy that he intercepted the ball in the build-up to Hull’s second goal, but it could not be avoided.
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