Why I’m still not sure if Portsmouth title winner and former Leeds United man's speaking to me 22 years on from run-in

A patio at King Edward VI School’s playing fields, AKA Pompey’s ramshackle Eastleigh training ground, was the venue and defender Hayden Foxe was holding court ahead of a big weekend trip to Walsall.

After a season in which Harry Redknapp’s showmen had cut a swathe through Division One with an irresistible attacking swagger, the heroes of 2003 were now on the brink of claiming their prize.

So the mood was convivial as Foxe gave his thoughts on what was ahead at the Bescot Stadium, with a bullish confidence coursing through the Pompey camp.

That was conveyed to the assembled press corps by the Aussie defender, before the interview was wrapped up and a friendly response to a question over whether he fancied three points was on the cards ensuing.

‘As long as we've got our boots on the right way, we'll come out with the win mate!’ Foxe quipped, before making his way off to the changing rooms.

It was that throwaway line which was brought up as myself and former chief football writer, Mark Storey, returned to Hilsea Towers for an editorial discussion over the day’s stories.

But it was those words which struck a chord with those making decisions over which stories were prioritised, with the next morning’s print edition on the horizon.

With his years at the football coalface Storey urged against using those particular quotes, especially after witnessing them arrive in a period his experience told him was firmly in ‘off the record’ territory.

The powers that be looking for the juiciest morsels to hang a headline thought it fair game however, and championed this naive Pompey writer to plough on using the quote.

In my first season working full-time on the Fratton beat, still firmly eager to impress and perhaps a little intoxicated at the prospect of my work landing in the prime back page position, I sided with the latter.

Schoolboy sports journalist mistake number one.

Twenty two years on, I now know Storey’s advice was born out of being the fall guy sent out to face angry footballers, as those who put the headlines on his work remained holed in their sport desk bunkers.

So this was to be my Pompey reporting rite of passage, as I climbed a steep learning curve and the story with my byline on it reverberated around the city and beyond the next morning.

News was quickly relayed back to me of Foxe’s anger with this rookie writer, who 12 months earlier had been in the Fratton End singing the players’ names, now the subject of the squad’s ire as they closed ranks with one of their own.

So the journey to the Bescot that Saturday was one made with a degree of trepidation, with the journalist becoming the story ahead of kick-off.

A radio debut in these circumstances was not what I was expecting, but being called to give my side of events on 107.4 The Quay only deepened that sense eyes were now firmly on me.

And then fate conspired to produce a moment which saw the story resonate with grim irony, as, with Pompey two goals up and firmly in control, Foxe gifted possession to Brazilian striker Junior. No prizes for guessing where the ball ended up.

So there we were with promotion points now at risk, everyone saying the man who made the slip had his boots on the wrong way and the whole thing feeling like it was my fault.

Rarely has a full-time whistle and win been greeted with such blessed relief as that April afternoon in the Midlands. Yet it was also the clarion call for my next battle, as I then had to face the Pompey camp after the game.

Aware of the importance, and now heeding the advice of my colleague Storey to confront my plight head on, I positioned myself outside the team coach and awaited my fate. It was to arrive in the cold shoulder and icy stares of Foxe, Arjan De Zeeuw, Shaka Hislop & Co, with a jokey wagging finger and grin from Linvoy Primus some welcome respite for this pariah.

‘He’ll soon calm down’

There was an arm around the shoulder from Jim Smith, as he emerged from the players’ entrance suitably refreshed by the three points and the host’s hospitality.

‘Don’t worry about it, he’ll soon calm down,’ laughed the Blues legend with his cheeks aglow, but it never quite worked out that way.

There was certainly no resolution by the following summer as some Antipodean heckling interrupted my interview with Nigel Quashie, after being invited to Nigel Mansell's Woodbury Park in Devon to join Pompey’s pre-season training.

‘Stay away from him, he’s trouble mate,’ came the call, with a bemused Quashie kindly completing his interview amid the surprise interruption.

Wretched fortune with injuries ensured paths rarely crossed from there as Foxe’s last Fratton appearance arrived at the end of 2003, meaning things were never explicitly resolved before his departure officially arrived 18 months later.

A stint with this weekend’s opponents ensued in 2006, with the Sydney man now tasked with aiding the progress of some of Pompey’s current crop as Tony Popovic’s assistant with the Socceroos.

Meanwhile, the learning put in place over two decades ago still informs the conduct of this member of the Blues media beat.

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