‘What a goal. Then Robert Prosinecki must have thought “Who are these Portsmouth numpties I'm playing with?"'

Lewis Buxton was granted a prime view of Robert Prosinecki’s magical hat-trick – and maintained a ring-side seat for the post-match meltdown.

The Isle of Wight defender was a teenager occupying the same pitch as the legendary ex-Barcelona and Real Madrid man during the 2001-02 season.

In February 2002 at Fratton Park, Buxton watched in awe as Prosinecki registered the only hat-trick of his career.

The first was a casual right-footed penalty after Courtney Pitt had been fouled, while the third was a right-footed free-kick into the top corner.

Sandwiched in between was the goal Buxton credits as the greatest he has ever witnessed live.

However, Pompey would let slip a two-goal lead in the final six minutes as the Division One match ended in a 4-4 outcome.

Buxton told The News: ‘My best memory of Robert Prosinecki was when he scored a hat-trick against Barnsley.

‘I was on the same pitch, stood behind watching him as we attacked the Fratton end.

‘He was on the edge of the box, shaped to shoot, and then chopped it onto his other foot – two of their players went to block.

‘Then he did it again, fooling the same two players, and creating space to drive it left-footed into the far bottom corner. Wow.

‘I can still see that goal now, it sticks in the memory. Out of all the goals I’ve seen live, that’s the one I can always picture.

‘I didn’t score many goals, I’ve even forgotten some of them, usually bundled over the line from a corner, but that one from Prosinecki I remember. It’s lodged in the memory.

‘It’s comical, as a defender, when somebody throws you a dummy or pretends to shoot and chops it back, most of the time you can read it. But they couldn’t – it was a fantastic goal.

‘After that game he came off the pitch muttering to himself, he was fuming because we drew.

‘He said: “I scored three goals and we still only draw. How is this possible?”. I was thinking, to be fair you’re right!

‘Prosinecki wasn’t a difficult person to get on with, he wasn’t a superstar pain in the backside. He got on with all the staff – he gave Kev McCormack a watch.

‘But at that moment he must have been thinking “Who are these numpties I am playing with?”. He was dumbfounded at us clowns.

‘Afterwards he wasn’t trying to swing for anyone, just annoyed we hadn’t won when he’d scored a hat-trick – and of course you always want to win.

‘In training, when doing boxes, which involves people in the middle chasing after the ball, he was trying things you had never seen before.

‘Prosinecki’s pushing it with the inside of his foot, people are starting to move and then, at the same time, he’s held it on his foot, before flicked it with the outside through their legs. Oh my God, what has happened there, how is he able to do that?

‘Then you would see him at half-time smoking in the changing room and he can barely pick up a sprint! But his technical ability is the reason why he played for Croatia, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

‘If not for his fitness levels, he would have been playing at a much higher level than Pompey. Technically, he was better than some in the Premier League at that time.’

Months following Prosinecki’s arrival, Pompey also welcomed another international into their ranks.

Yoshi Kawaguchi was signed for a club record £1.8m in October 2001, eventually breaking into Graham Rix’s first-team.

Buxton lined-up in the same team three times, although the Japanese keeper only ever totalled 13 appearances for the Blues.

He added: ‘I roomed a couple of times with Yoshi. I think I was travelling and there was no other young player, so I was with him.

‘He was the nicest guy, but it was one of those weird things happening at the time. You’re thinking “What’s going on, why is he here?”, but there was some background commercial part to it which we didn’t understand.

‘Yoshi gave everything, was meticulous in his training and a happy guy, but it didn’t quite work out for him. The physicality of the league didn’t match his style.

‘It wasn’t about his height, if you can jump three foot in the air then height is not going to be much of a problem.

‘In those days, you had a lot of traditional centre-forwards who could head the ball and keen to put their elbow into your face while jumping.

‘Yoshi didn’t have the physicality other keepers had.’

MORE: Lewis Buxton: I was a teenage Pompey regular tracked by England – but brilliant Blues kicked on quicker than me

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