Bone Idle Gossip: The good and bad of Portsmouth from Christmases past

For now, let’s indulge in some festive frivolity and focus on ghosts and good days of Christmases past.

The question is: What's your favourite Pompey Boxing Day game of days gone by, and your least favourite?

There are plenty to choose from, with December 26 being one of the dates in the season that almost always features a match.

It took me five seasons of watching Pompey before I saw them play on Boxing Day.

I had various excuses. In 1981 I was watching Lorraine Chase, Dora Bryan and Brian Cant in Aladdin at the Kings Theatre; in 82 and 83 I was ill and missed wins over Brentford and Charlton, and in 84 the Blues were at Brighton in the days before I did many away matches.

I finally got a festive Fratton fix in 1985 and after all that waiting, of course we lost – 2-1 to Brighton, a goal by Kevin O’Callagham the only bright spot.

I’ve done plenty of Blues Boxing Day games since then but my favourite and least favourite would be two from the early 90s.

In 1990 we were reminded of the Greg Lake lyric ‘They said there’d be snow at Christmas … but instead it just kept on raining’ as it absolutely belted it down all afternoon on our (very) open terrace at Bristol City as we lost 4-1. I've only just dried out.

Two years later, though, it was dry and it was Guy Whittingham scoring four as he and Paul Walsh double-handedly ripped the Rovers of Bristol apart. Scintillating stuff.

Over to you – email [email protected] or tweet @stevebone1 with your best and worst,