Ex-Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke man Lewis Buxton: I was a teenage Portsmouth regular tracked by England - but brilliant Blues kicked on quicker than me

Yet Lewis Buxton’s bright Fratton Park progress was smothered by the remarkable Harry Redknapp revolution.

A starting XI fixture alongside Peter Crouch and Robert Prosinecki, the home-grown starlet registered 27 starts during an impressive breakthrough 2001-02 season.

However, he would feature in the Blues’ first-team for just one minute more following that eye-catching campaign.

As Redknapp initiated a glorious Premier League charge inspired by the likes of Paul Merson, Steve Stone, Yakubu, Matt Taylor and Arjan de Zeeuw, the promising Buxton signified the unfortunate fallout.

The central defender from the Isle of Wight was instead relegated to a reserve-team existence, condemned to see out his Pompey days on loan adventures.

Regardless, Buxton enjoyed a fine career, totalling 382 appearances and seven goals during a 16-year Football League residency, primarily at Championship level.

Although England never came calling again.

Buxton told The News: ‘It was a funny old year. I was named Pompey’s young player of the season, while England scout Ted Buxton came to a game and approached me.

‘It was during the warm-up before a Fratton Park match, he was on the touchline and had a word with me.

‘He kind of said “We’re watching you, you are doing great. We’re trying to get you involved as part of the England setup, just keep doing what you are doing”.

‘Whether it was for the under-18s or whatever, I’m not sure. I was a kid and thought “What’s going on here? I couldn’t even get in Pompey’s youth team two years earlier!”.

‘Well, I played 29 matches that season – then featured just once more at Pompey the following year.

‘Who knows what happened with England. I guess it’s one of those opportunities you get close to but aren’t quite good enough to stand out enough.

‘It was all going well for me – then the club changed. It went from being mid-table surviving in Division One to being a club which wanted to reach the Premier League.

‘With that came a lot of good players entering the building. The young players didn’t really get an opportunity after that point.

‘Harry Redknapp previously had people like Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard at West Ham. When he saw our level compared to people like that, he wouldn’t give you a chance unless you could match it.

‘In terms of development, that didn’t help Pompey’s youngsters. They didn’t offer anything for us compared to what Graham Rix and his assistant Jim Duffy did.

‘Let’s not forget, though, bringing in those top-level players took Pompey into the Premier League. It was a great team too.’

Hailing from East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, Buxton sprang to the attention of Pompey while representing Osborne Middle School and East Cowes’ youth team.

Invited to Roger North’s development centre on the island, the Arsenal fan was soon affiliated with Pompey, travelling over with Newport’s Shaun Cooper, before settling into digs together.

Initially a midfielder, Buxton was struggling for regular selection until converted into a central defender at the age of 14, having created a favourable impression as a substitute.

It was as a defender he earned a Pompey scholarship, paid £45 a week with duties including cleaning the boots of fellow Isle of Wight footballer Lee Bradbury.

His group included Cooper, Warren Hunt and Terry Parker, while Rowan Vine and Gary O’Neil were affiliated with the year above.

Then Buxton was handed a surprise first-team debut by Graham Rix at Stockport in August 2001 – at the age of 17 years, eight months and 16 days.

Partnering Alessandro Zamperini in the centre of defence for the Blues’ fourth match of the campaign, they won 1-0 through Robert Prosinecki’s second-half penalty.

It represented the first of 27 starts for the youngster in the old Division One that season, forming a youthful element also including Neil Barrett, Courtney Pitt and Gary O’Neil.

However, in March 2002, Rix was dismissed by owner Milan Mandaric, with director of football Harry Redknapp stepping in as manager.

Although Buxton started all five of the matches overseen by Redknapp at the end of that 2001-02 campaign, something special was stirring.

The following season Pompey claimed the Division One title to reach the Premier League title with a swagger and a flourish still savoured almost 20 years later.

As for Buxton, he played one minute of first-team football during his remaining Fratton Park career.

‘That summer of 2002 saw Harry bringing in players who were a lot better,’ he added.

‘These were Premier League standard, who could certainly play in the middle to lower parts of that level, let alone Division One.

‘You wouldn’t like to hear it as a young man, but I’m afraid you’re just not good enough to mix it with that group of players being brought in.

‘You’re not a stand-out player at that point, so have to bridge the gap – and the only way to do that is by playing matches, training and working on your game.

‘Looking back, I lost a bit of ground. I was disappointed and didn’t know what to do. Now I was training with the reserves after playing 29 times the previous season.

‘If you’re not interacting with the first-team and aren’t getting the attention from the manager, it tells you something. From that point, you either have to fight your way back in – or go out on loan and then try to get back into the team at a later stage.

‘The club were kicking on – and kicking on quicker than I was. My level was beneath that.

‘We were training at Eastleigh. You’d have the first-team in one changing room, the youth team in another and the reserves, who were the hybrids between the two, in the other.

‘The first-team trained on pitches right next to where you get changed. The reserves would cross a road to use these mud fields, they certainly weren’t professional-standard pitches. You were not part of it, detached.

‘Sometimes you’d get called over when the first-team were short of numbers. I went from training with the first-team every day to filling holes and plugging gaps. That’s not about your development, it’s about numbers in terms of an 11 v 11.

‘Harry wasn’t interested in our young group. His objective was to get Pompey into the Premier League. Later he also won the FA Cup. It was a fantastically successful period in the club’s history on the football pitch.

‘But in terms of bringing any value to us, there was nothing. Obviously our coaches – Shaun North, Mark O’Connor, Neil McNab and Andy Awford – brought value, yet in terms of trying to integrate the teams and progressing your career, that wasn’t there. I didn’t see that.

‘Mentally, I was a bit disgruntled. At times I was probably a bit closed off and sulked. You get left in the lurch a bit, the youth-team coaches and reserve managers don’t really know what to do with you.

‘You are no longer playing with a first-team group of players, mixing it with them and developing. Your development actually comes to a bit of a halt.

‘I was in a system not optimised for the development and performance of young players, but, at the same time, if you’re not good enough you have to take it into your own hands and do the best you can. I could have done a better job at that.

‘My level was near those first-team guys before the new recruits came in. Suddenly I had come back down to playing with the youth team and reserve lads.’

Buxton sought loan football during the 2002-03 season, initially through a one-month spell at Third Division Exeter, who had former Blues youth coach Neil McNab as manager.

There was also an 89th-minute outing for Pompey in a 3-2 success over Walsall in November 2002, coming on for Svetoslav Torodov.

It represented his 30th and final appearance for the club he had joined as a midfielder from the Isle of Wight at the age of 12.

Buxton would spend the second half of the season at Bournemouth, helping Sean O’Driscoll’s side win promotion through the Third Division play-offs in May 2003.

He returned to Dean Court the following term, totalling 46 games from his two spells, before permanently leaving the Blues in December 2004 with a free transfer switch to Stoke.

Further moves saw him rack up 207 outings at Sheffield Wednesday, followed by stints at Rotherham and Bolton in a 16-year-old Football League career.

Retiring from football in the summer of 2017 at the age of 33, Buxton has settled in Lancashire with his wife and two children.

He has established himself as an insight coach, assisting Premier League and Championship players, while has written a mindset book titled ‘The Athlete’s Bible’.

Buxton said: ‘Being an insight coach is something I am passionate about. It’s outside the box to what a lot of clubs do at the minute, world’s apart.

‘As a player, how can I one day be walking to Fratton Park and not feeling nervous? I’m under a bit of pressure, yet am thriving off it, I feel great.

‘Then other times I come out onto the same pitch against a similar level of opposition and am really inconsistent and nervous.

‘It can’t be the pitch, it can’t be the stadium, it can’t be the opposition – it must be you.

‘It’s looking at yourself and getting that right. If your head’s in the right place then you can perform consistency. It’s about mindset.

‘I have worked with Premier League, Championship and MLS players, some coaches and managers as well, although their names have to be kept confidential.

‘Looking back on my time in football, when you put it into perspective and consider all those players who couldn’t make a career out of it, at least I did something I love.

‘That’s all you can do, no matter the industry. If you love what you are doing and make a career out of it, that’s something to be proud of.

‘You always look back and think “I would have liked to have played at a higher level”, but, at the same time, just think back to that six-year-old kicking a ball around on the Isle of Wight.

‘If you had told him “You can be a professional footballer”, then I would have snapped your hand off.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

On Saturday, March 13 Pompey will finally get their day at Wembley.

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