Knight: Pompey winnning title tops lifting FA Cup

I THINK winning the title will go down as a bigger success than winning the FA Cup.
Pompey celebrate dramatically winning the League Two title Pic: Joe PeplerPompey celebrate dramatically winning the League Two title Pic: Joe Pepler
Pompey celebrate dramatically winning the League Two title Pic: Joe Pepler

I genuinely feel what took place on Saturday will be better and more rewarding than 2008.

And in fact I think it could possibly be even better than some of the successes I had in my playing career.

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I don’t mean it disrespectfully to anyone involved in that glorious win, but this stands above it for me.

From little Bobby coming to his first game to 97-year-old boardroom steward John Jenkins, everyone has played their part in the journey to this point.

It’s been hard with horrible moments, but the club is now an upward spiral again.

The weekend brought back memories of running off the pitch against Sheffield United after we’d secured promotion in 1987.

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I know a few people questioned the idea of a celebration on Sunday after winning promotion.

But I was 18 when we went up from the old fourth division and I was lucky enough to be involved with that group.

We went on an open-top parade from the ground to the Guildhall and that was amazing.

That has stayed with me, and those scenes will stay with these guys forever.

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I know some of the players have played a lot of football and gained promotions at other clubs.

But I doubt they’ve been part of the kind of scenes they’ve witnessed over the past couple of days.

Everyone says Pompey is a big club, but it’s when these things happen you realise how big it is.

All the supporters can be very proud of what’s been achieved and it’s great for the city. This is what it’s all about.

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This is the culmination of a lot of work over a number of years by a lot of people.

We should also look at what Guy Whittingham did early on as manager with very little to work with.

And Awfs came in and stopped us dropping out of the Football League.

Those guys deserve plenty of credit for their efforts.

Look, they both love the club and wanted to be the one to turn this great club around.

But fair play to Cookie for being the one to do that.

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He’s put himself up there with some of the great managers at this club now.

In terms of modern greats there’s obviously Harry Redknapp, Alan Ball, Frank Burrows and Bobby Campbell.

Cookie is now up there among those heroes - and rightly so. His record at this level is second to none and he’s put himself in with those legends.

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