Portsmouth 'promotion party' taunt after Bolton play-off heartbreak to Oxford United is social media smash

Pompey delivered a ‘promotion party’ dig at a supporter following Bolton’s Wembley heartbreak.

Oxford United will be joining the Blues and Derby in the Championship next season following their 2-0 play-off final victory on Saturday,

Josh Murphy’s double secured success over a Trotters side which finished third in League One - 10 points behind Pompey.

However, the champions’ official X account couldn’t resist a jibe over the result - in particular referencing the behaviour of one Bolton supporter on social media.

Following last month’s 1-1 draw at the Trotters, which at the time prevented the Blues from winning promotion, @MarkLittlemore1 recorded an infamous post-match video which he distributed on what was formerly known as Twitter. 

It consisted of him approaching several Pompey fans plus club secretary Ali Knell and skipper Marlon Pack and jokingly asking when the ‘promotion party’ was.

Pack, who at the time was signing autographs for Blues supporter Sam Ford and others, responded with “Where’s your promotion party?”.

The Tweet which accompanied the 105-second video said: “If anyone bought tickets for the Pompey promotion party in Bolton tonight, then speak to Aaron Collins for a refund. It will be now be held in a Portsmouth Wetherspoons next Saturday”.

The video has since been viewed 910,000 times and, inevitably, was revisited when the Blues did win promotion - and the League One title - the following match following a 3-2 victory over Barnsley.

In the aftermath of Saturday’s defeat for Bolton, Pompey Tweeted a picture of Pack from that video encounter with Littlemore.

They then followed it up in a separate Tweet containing a 120-second video of the Southsea Common celebrations involving John Mousinho’s team as well as fellow title-winners Pompey Women.

This was accompanied by the message “Something about a promotion party?” - drawing much praise from the Fratton faithful.

Between the two posts, they have totalled approaching 6,500 likes and 350 comments, almost entirely from supporters applauding the work of Max Swatton, Pompey’s Digital & Social Media lead.

Bolton collected one point from Pompey this season, while lost 2-0 at Fratton Park in December, as they missed out on automatic promotion behind Derby by five points.