Portsmouth pledge 'fitting' tributes to John Jenkins, Ron Saunders and Jim Smith for Ipswich visit

The long-serving boardroom steward yesterday passed away at the age of 100, leaving a city in mourning.

It signals another blow to the Pompey family, having in the last two weeks also lost the club’s third-highest scorer, Saunders, and former boss and assistant manager Smith.

Saturday represents the first home match for the Fratton faithful to pay their respects to the popular trio.

In recent times, Pompey have staged a minute’s applause to honour the passing of club figures, including ex-players and management staff.

And chief executive Mark Catlin insists the Blues are exploring ‘fitting ways’ to show appreciation to the immense contributions of Jenkins, Saunders and Smith.

He said: ‘We have recently lost Ron, Jim and now John.

‘We are working on fitting ways to pay tribute to all of them at Saturday’s game.

‘The match-day programme will contain tributes and I believe members of John’s family have been invited along.

‘As a club, we don’t really like to boast about what we do behind the scenes, we just go about our business quietly and correctly, which is the right way to do things in our opinion.’

Saunders and Smith both passed after the previous home match against Peterborough on December 7.

Jenkins attended that fixture, watching from his customary seat in the Fratton directors’ box.

Kenny Jackett’s side last weekend visited Accrington – but they return for a home fixture against second-placed Ipswich on Saturday.