The trouble with Portsmouth playing Oxford United in the play-offs

TO THE MANOR BORN screamed the headline with Bally’s boys looking mean and ready to rumble, as they ended a 28-year absence from English football’s top table with what in reality was an underwhelming trip to Oxford United’s home.

It was the opening day of the 1987-88 season, hope sprung external and after such a memorable promotion campaign in which winning games had become the norm, these innocent young eyes were convinced victory was a formality - a marker to be laid down on the way to inevitable domination of English football.

So, to the eight-year-old tuned into Radio Victory that sunny summer afternoon much was learnt about football, the lot of a Pompey fan and an unfashionable side’s ability to stick a Robert Maxwell-sized spanner in the works. A comprehensive 4-2 loss ensued.

The Blues’ penchant for creating optimism only to disappoint was to become a lot more familiar as the years passed - as was Oxford’s uncanny ability to be present when an anti-climax was around the corner.

Those who remember the 1992-93 season will need little reminding of the collapse from Jim Smith’s side in November, as a 5-2 lead was criminally surrendered with 13 minutes left.

It’s the game their legendary manager would continually return to over the years when he would reflect on his side missing out on automatic promotion by virtue of scoring one goal fewer than West Ham.

Fast forward to 2013 and expectations were sky rocketing to unreasonable levels on the opening day of the first full season of community ownership.

Chris Wilder’s team, complete with Dave Kitson, were supposed to be the sacrificial lambs as a football club out of kilter with their fourth-tier surroundings were expected to begin an inexorable charge to League Two success.

The pre-match team huddle and a symbolic snapshot of the people’s victory in saving the club was as good as it got, however. Oxford were once again party poopers as they left a shell-shocked Guy Whittingham coming to terms with a 4-1 tanning.

There are other moments which spring to mind, too.

Ex-Southampton striker Nicky Banger giving it large to the Fratton End after levelling twice in a 2-2 draw in 1998.

The 3-0 defeat in the second league game of Kenny Jackett’s reign, which convinced the Pompey boss the legs of many in his side wouldn’t hold up at a higher level after League Two title glory.

There seemed a lengthy spell in the 80s and 90s a trip to Oxford may as well have been a visit to the San Siro. The stats tell their own story P12 W1 D1 L10 (the draw being the 5-5 in 1993).

So, yes, Oxford having Wang Computers as their shirt sponsor for a portion of those years gave us a chuckle, but the joke was usually on Pompey.

Even in recent times, for every Ben Thompson-inspired 4-1 victory there seems to be a sting in the tale, such as a stoppage-time leveller from Matt Taylor, prevalent when the U’s are around.

So those fans who’ve been around long enough, could’ve afforded themselves a chuckle when the two clubs were paired in the environs of a play-off fight to the death: the team who enjoy spoiling the Pompey party in a setting where we can’t win a game. Perfect.

Over the coming days we’re going to be hearing these figures a fair bit, no doubt, so we’ll keep the delivery brief here. Six play-off games, no wins.

Of course, though, it’s now that matters and not the past. And Karl Robinson’s side were only on a five-game winning run before the season came to a halt. Meanwhile, everything Taylor’s been hitting has been finding the back of the net, with six of his 17-goal haul total arriving in that winning run.

We wait to see what the near four-month lay-off has done to that momentum but as much as it’s never nice to have a break after a defeat, Pompey’s opponents haven’t had much to fret over amid football’s suspension.

Fortunately, Oxford’s recurring presence when things go wrong belongs very much in the mindset of the fan, and, on this occasion, their influence on proceedings is at a low ebb.

Players, meanwhile, are not weighed down by the shackles of the past. They aren’t impacted by the same sense of foreboding supporters are afflicted by when paired with a nemesis.

Quite simply, how two sets of players have dealt with unprecedented circumstances and both the physical and mental challenges it’s presented will be the dominant deciding factor here. Though, after the play-off pain we’ve suffered over the past 27 years, it would be nice for the football gods to afford Pompey at least a Mona Lisa smile.

And if Jackett’s side are chasing the game at the death, perhaps someone could stick on a Santa costume and launch a socially distant pitch invasion.

You know, just like that Pompey fan did in 1984 when he created the stoppage time for Alan Biley to score two headers and help his side to a Christmas come-from-behind win. Who were the unfortunate promotion rivals who lost that day, again?

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this story on portsmouth.co.uk. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to portsmouth.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to local news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit our Subscription page now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.