Middlesbrough v Portsmouth – 26th February 1992
Posted on | June 25, 2009 | No Comments
Another classic match for you today, from Portsmouth’s famous FA Cup run of 1992. We were eventually to reach the semi final against Liverpool, of course, and were hugely unlucky not to make the final itself.
But I think the best game in the entire run that year was the fifth round replay at Ayresome Park against Middlesbrough. The game has taken on a cult-like status over the years, and I am one of those lucky enough to be able to say I was there.
It wasn’t just the amount of goals during the match, or the quality and excitement of the play that have made this such a classic. It was also the way the stage had been set during the previous rounds. Pompey had won at Alan Ball’s Exeter City in the third round with a late Warren Aspinall winner, and Darren Anderton had come to national prominence with a brilliant drag-back and shot to score in the 2-0 fourth round home win over Leyton Orient. We then faced Middlesbrough at home in the fifth round, and a Guy Whittingham goal had us 1-0 up until a late equaliser from an unlikely source, central defender Alan Kernaghan, sealed a replay for Middlesbrough at Ayresome Park.
And that was the end of our cup run. We had had a good win against Leyton Orient and shown the country that we had some good young players, but we had blown our chance of progressing further by letting Boro back in at Fratton Park. What’s more, when the replay came around, it was a freezing midweek night, a long haul to Middlesbrough, and Whittingham was out of the team to be replaced by Colin Clarke. Cue one of the best matches I have ever been to.
I have my own personal reasons for being so fond of this game too. I was still at school, but living in Preston and my Dad would take me to a lot of the nearest games. Living in the North West, this turned out to be quite a few, but I don’t think Boro away in midweek was ever part of the plan. But, if you don’t ask you don’t get and for some reason he seemed only too willing. We must both have been developing cup fever, but I’m glad we did as it was one of the best experiences we had watching Pompey together.
The atmosphere in the ground was fantastic, and we responded in the away end, despite the fact that it was more the away corner. The game itself didn’t start well with Andy Payton and Paul Wilkinson looking threatening up front for Middlesbrough. Wilkinson opened the scoring emphatically with his head from a corner on 18 minutes. The first half then developed a clear pattern, with Anderton and Clarke combining for Pompey’s equaliser. Clarke latched on to a perfect pass to finish low into the corner. Wilkinson then provided a carbon copy header for Boro before Clarke volleyed home Anderton’s pass for the equaliser. 2-2 at half time and I remember feeling privileged to be at such a great game and real excitement in anticipation of a second half that could clearly go either way, despite Boro’s home advantage.
Pompey really took control in the second half, but it was a fluke goal that saw us take the lead, Anderton scoring direct from a corner. The ball simply just crept in at the near post. Anderton crashed home a spectacular fourth, and I still remember to this day the feeling of the celebration of that goal. It wasn’t just the quality of the goal itself, or the fact that it had sealed the game. It was the fact that there we were, far from home (most further than me) on a freezing February night, and we could see our team dismantling the opposition in their own back yard. Well that’s what I was thinking, but I know from looking at all the other Pompey fans’ faces that night, that we were all on the same wavelength. Colin Clarke even hit the bar after that and had another goal disallowed!
As we walked away from the ground back to the car that night, I remember noting that our eventual nemesis Liverpool had also beaten Ipswich in a fifth round replay. In the car on the way home, I also remember listening to Deeply Dippy by Right Said Fred, the number one at the time. Trivial things, but totally inseparable from my memory of the night as a whole, as these tiny things often are. Most of all, I remember just being grateful to my Dad, who is no longer with us, for taking me and allowing me to have such a treasured memory of the great time we had together that night for the rest of my life.
Tags: Alan Ball > Alan Kernaghan > Andy Payton > Ayresome Park > Colin Clarke > Darren Anderton > Exeter City > FA Cup > Fratton Park > Guy Whittingham > Ipswich Town > Leyton Orient > Liverpool > Middlesbrough > Paul Wilkinson > Pompey > Portsmouth > Warren Aspinall
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