WATCH: Pompey fan's naked swim in fountain
Long-suffering supporter Joe Brindley stripped off after the League Two side finally won promotion after four years.
The 22-year-old roofer promised friends on Facebook ahead of the final game of the season: ‘If Pompey wins the league tomorrow I will swim around the fountain in Commercial Road naked!’
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Hide AdAt the time the south coast side were lying in third place behind Plymouth Argyle and Doncaster Rovers, with automatic promotion already secured.
Needing to better both their results, Joe was convinced Pompey couldn’t win the league — but they thrashed Cheltenham 6-1 as Plymouth and Doncaster failed to win.
The result sparked a massive party on the city streets, culminating in Joe fulfilling his dare.
After the game Joe, who lives in Portsmouth, sank a few beers to build up some Dutch courage before removing his clothes and swimming around the city centre fountain.
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Hide AdHe then rang his mum, Kerry Frampton, to ask her to make sure there was hot water for a quick shower so he could freshen up before heading back out to celebrate winning the title.
He was later told that his stepdad Neil Frampton had also once swum around the same fountain in his clothes when Portsmouth won promotion to the Premier League in 2003.
Joe said: ‘When I wrote the status I didn’t actually think it was going to happen.
‘I go to all the home games, and most of the away games as well, and I didn’t think we had a chance.
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Hide Ad‘I was literally sat there on the night, I was sober, chatting with my girlfriend and my family and I just thought ‘You know what...’. It just came up in my head.
‘I thought “I’m going to write it”. I didn’t think it was going to get over 100 likes once my friends all spotted it, and they all said “we’re holding you to this”. I couldn’t let them down.
‘What I didn’t know at the time was that my stepdad Neil swam around the fountain too when we get promoted to the Premier League.
‘But when I actually did it he said mine was better because he said “you did it naked”. He thought it was brilliant.
‘My mum was like “fair play, I take my hat off to you”.
‘Everyone saw the funny side.
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Hide Ad‘I wasn’t expecting it to get 70,000 views on Facebook and shared on different groups.
‘The banter has been flowing at work.
‘They cannot believe I have done it.
‘There’s a big buzz around the city again, especially after four years of being in League Two and not doing much. I think we are on the up.”
Joe, who has attended over half the club’s away games this season and has a tattoo of Portsmouth FC’s badge on his upper left thigh, added: ‘My girlfriend thinks I’m nuts. She can’t wait for the season to be finished.’