Places of Portsmouth pain are piling up '“ and Sheffield United's Bramall Lane tops list

After sharing some memories of disasters that had befallen us at Oakwell, I asked at the end of last week's column where else on their travels the Blues had suffered most misery.

Inevitably, nominations came in thick and fast.

One away ground seemed to stand alone as a particular Pompey graveyard and it's one I know all too well '“ Sheffield United's Bramall Lane.

I've seen us lose there many times and the only time I've seen us avoid defeat in that corner of South Yorkshire was on the April 1986 day when a 0-0 draw all but ended our hopes of promotion to the first division.

So Bramall Lane, where Pompey last tasted victory in November 1955, despite having played there 25 times since, will be No1 in a series in this column about the grounds which have caused Blues fans the most angst over the years. 

After that I think we'll deal with the Manor Ground, Oxford's ramshackle yet quite charming old ground, where we did have the odd success but where these were far outweighed by misfortune and misery.

Oddly, I suspect it's a Manor Ground draw that hurts most Pompey fans of a certain vintage more than any defeat there.

After that I'm not sure where we'll go, but I think Selhurst Park in the last century might feature somewhere.

Our record at Palace since 1996 isn't too shabby at all but in the 30 years up to that point it didn't hold much joy.

I'm open to other suggestions and will be after fans' memories of why trips to these locations have been best forgotten.

In many cases they probably were forgotten... until I mentioned them again...