Bone Idle Gossip: A certain 4-1 win, cup joy... and Santa

Pompey's 4-1 success was the favourite for fans

The long road is at an end and we know what your favourite Pompey game is.

Well, we know what it is if you can’t name any Wembley game, promotion, title or relegation-escape clincher, or the AC Milan game.

My unofficial reader poll ended with a certain 4-1 win over a certain lot from up the road being voted the clear winner.

I shouldn’t think anyone who was at Fratton Park at Sunday lunchtime on April 24, 2005, will ever forget those first 26 minutes. (Actually, my mistake, a couple of thousand who were at one end of the ground seem to have forgotten it years ago...).

I was lucky enough to be writing the match report for The News that day and I began it with something like: “Pompey 4 Southampton 1. Say it. Then say it again.” Not that I was milking the moment or anything.

I think the fact it was an absolute mullering AND meant so much more set it apart – remember, it pretty much made us safe in the Premier League and set the other lot on course towards relegation.

What a day.

Second spot in the ‘fave Blues game’ vote went to the FA Cup quarter-final win at Man Utd in 2008 – probably Pompey’s best individual result of the modern era.

Third spot went to a game more than 20 years older than either of the top two and can be summed up in a three-word title: The Santa Game. You know the one – Oxford 1-0 up, Santa invades pitch, Alan Biley invades the penalty area twice to make it 2-1 win. Glorious stuff.

Thanks to everyone who voted – a full list of all games mentioned is being worked on, almost as we speak.