Who's your favourite Pompey midfielder? Quarter-final draw revealed

Our tournament of Twitter votes began just over a fortnight ago with 50 midfield men from down the years.

Eighteen fell by the wayside in qualifying groups and another 16 went in the first round.

Now the last 16 has been completed and we are left with a strong quarter-final line-up which will give voters some tough choices.

Some big names are already out. Kevin Dillon and Neil Webb, firm favourites of the 1980s, have both been beaten by Gary O’Neil, while Alan McLoughlin and Sulley Muntari are others to have been voted out when many would have expected them to go further.

This, for those who don’t know, is the third in our series of five unofficial, unscientific polls to find who readers of the Sports Mail, the Pompey programme and followers of my Twitter feed (@stevebone1) regard as their favourite – not necessarily the best – Pompey players of all-time.

David James won the goalkeepers’ vote while Linvoy Primus was named your No1 defender.

Now we’re at the sharp end of the midfield vote.

In any tournament featuring random draws, there’s always the chance that two of the favourites can face each other well before the final.

It happened in our goalie tournament when Alan Knight had the misfortune to be drawn against Jamo in the quarter-finals. And it’s occurred again here with Paul Merson and Lassana Diarra – both surely among those you’d think would stand a great chance of making the final – facing off.

That’s the tie of the round but the other three will prove interesting too.

Pedro Mendes takes on Mick Kennedy in a battle of the eras – much like the one that saw 80s legend Kennedy squeeze past Papa Bouba Diop in the last round.

O’Neil, who, as we’ve said, has already claimed the double scalp of Webb and Dillon, now takes on Michael Doyle. And the outsider, Richard Hughes, goes up against Robert Prosinecki, who’s got this far without any close contests.

You’ll be able to vote in these four ties on Twitter from later today (Saturday) – watch out on the @stevebone1 and the @pompeylive account for the 24-hour polls to go live.

The semi-finals and final will follow in the next few days. For those not on Twitter, look out in next weekend’s Sports Mail for news of the winner.

Then we’ll be starting to think about polls for your favourite winger or wide midfielder and favourite striker, which will folow later in the season.

Quarter-final draw

Pedro Mendes v Mick Kennedy

Gary O'Neil v Michael Doyle

Richard Hughes v Robert Prosinecki

Lassana Diarra v Paul Merson