On this day: Pompey skipper hits out at punishment for players and fans

Liam Lawrence helping out in the ticket office at Fratton Park

Back in February 2012, The News reported how the club skipper and the rest of the squad showed their support for the stricken Blues after they agreed to take a ‘significant’ pay cut to help find new owners.

Lawrence was even lined up to man the club’s ticket office to encourage more supporters to attend the upcoming Championship showdown with Leeds.

But the outspoken midfielder believed the team and its fans had been punished for the mistakes made by the previous guardians at Fratton Park.

Speaking to The News, Lawrence said: ‘The people who have had the club are to blame. maybe they should have been deducted 10 weeks’ pay rather than us getting deducted 10 points.

‘It’s always the supporters and the players who get punished. It shouldn’t be like that. It should be the people who have messed things up.

‘We’ve all been punished. The players and the supporters have been punished and now we’re in the bottom three because of the people above us who have ruined the club and ruined the chances of us surviving this season.’

Following meetings with the club’s administrator, Trevor Birch, and the PFA, Lawrence and the first-team squad all agreed to defer their unpaid January salary payments in the wake of the 30 redundancies that happened that week.

The squad also agreed to receive a percentage of their wage until May.

Lawrence said: ‘I think the club is in a serious, serious situation at the minute.

‘come may, if the club hasn’t been bought or it doesn’t make money until then, the club could go.

'So we’re just trying to do everything we can to help the club.

'We’ve taken a wage cut until May, we’ve forgotten about January’s pay for now.

‘We’re getting a percentage of our wages. I will not reveal what that is but we have taken a pay cut and it’s a significant cut – not just a tiny one.’