From left: Linvoy Primus, Sol Campbell, Matt Taylor and Andy AwfordFrom left: Linvoy Primus, Sol Campbell, Matt Taylor and Andy Awford
From left: Linvoy Primus, Sol Campbell, Matt Taylor and Andy Awford

Campbell, Dickinson, Awford, Clarke, Hreidarsson - the battle to be crowned Portsmouth's favourite defender of all time

Here it is – the battle to be crowned Pompey fans' favourite defender. Or at least their unofficial one.

This is the second in a series of four Pompey player votes running through the season that News/Sports Mail readers and Blues supporters in general are invited to take part in.

They're being run by Sports Mail columnist Steve Bone, who stresses they're just for fun and not designed to be scientific or provide any permanent crowns that can never be passed on.

It follows on from some great Pompey polls run by the Forgotten Pompey Goals Twitter account – the next one of which, to find fans' best away day, begins in a week or so.

Already Steve has done a goalkeepers' vote, which was won by David James – who overcame the likes of Alan Knight, Shaka Hislop and Aaron Flahavan to be named the Fratton faithful’s favourite stopper.

Now the focus turns to defenders and you can see from the 16 ties included that the tournament is set to be hotly contested.

There are some brilliant Blues back-line battlers from numerous eras all vying to be named No1 by readers.

The votes themselves – starting tomorrow with the last-32 and last-16 contests – will all take place on Twitter, in particular on Steve's timeline. Follow @stevebone1 and @pompeylive to see it all unfold if you're not doing so already.

The beauty of Twitter polls is everyone can see how the voting is going, each voter can cast only one vote and there can be no questioning the results – though this being Pompey, there will be plenty of argument over why some have beaten others along the way.

Each poll will last 24 hours, giving readers and any other passing Pompey fans the chance to have some influence.

By the end of the week we'll know who's in the quarter-finals, and you'll be able to see news of progress through the week here on portsmouth.co.uk

After asking for people's suggestions for which defenders to include, Steve started with 50 names and whittled it down to 32 with a series of qualifying group votes that you may have seen during the week.

Already out from that initial line-up of 50 are: Graeme Hogg, Tommy Rowe, Eoin Hand, Reg Flewin, Scott Hiley, Paul Went, Jimmy Allen, Johnny Ertl, Keith Viney, Dave Waterman, Warren Neill, Jason Crowe, Russell Perrett, Adrian Whitbread, George Ley, Robbie Pethick, John Beresford and Steve Foster.

There were some big casualties there, but we think you'll agree the 32 left make for a strong line-up.

Check out the ties here and ponder who's going to get your vote when the fun begins.

And when all this is done and dusted, look out for midfielders' and forwards' votes later in the season.

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