Michael Brown rubbishes accusations he refused to play for Portsmouth reserves ahead of Sheffield United move

The combative midfielder skippered the Blues in the Premier League and also started against Chelsea in the 2010 FA Cup final.

However, he also spent a brief loan spell at Fratton Park a decade earlier, which came to a premature end.

Alan Ball recruited Brown from Manchester City in November 1999 to assist his struggling Division One side.

Yet Ball was sacked the following month, with a return of one point from Brown’s four matches failing to address the team’s poor form.

The midfielder followed him out of Fratton Park shortly afterwards, albeit after an exchange with caretaker boss Bob McNab centring on playing in a reserve game.

Brown told The News: ‘Alan Ball had given me a debut at Manchester City, so I knew him very, very well.

‘He asked if I would like to come to Pompey to play some games, which I jumped at the chance, but it changed quickly.

‘It was a bit of a disaster, you could see things weren’t right, there was uncertainty around the club. Then he was sacked and Bob McNab became caretaker.

‘Manchester City didn’t want me to play in the FA Cup for Pompey against Sunderland, which was the next game. Then McNab asked me to play in the reserves along with all the loanee lads so he could look at us.

‘To me there seemed no point in risking myself in a reserve game. I wasn’t playing in the FA Cup and was returning to Manchester City in a week anyway.

‘I remember McNab coming out and saying I didn’t want to play in a reserve game, which was ludicrous. He didn’t have a clue really.

‘It was a load of rubbish him coming out and saying that. No chance would I refuse to play in games, I always wanted to play football, but it was about the circumstances. I could play in the reserves for my parent club.

‘I had a week left, the loan wasn’t going to be renewed, there was no point risking it. I was best off returning to Manchester City.

‘At that point he said I refused to play. I didn’t refuse to play. It just made sense to me.’

Within weeks of his Maine Road return, Brown was handed another Division One loan spell.

This time it was at Sheffield United – the club he had faced in his final Pompey appearance.

The Blues had lost that December 1999 fixture 1-0 through Paul Devlin’s first-half goal, yet the midfielder had caught the eye of boss Neil Warnock.

And Brown would spend the next four years at Bramall Lane.

He added: ‘It was Neil Warnock’s first game in charge of the Blades and he was straight on the phone when he realised I had left Pompey, saying “I’ll have you down here”.

‘After three weeks they wanted to sign me permanently. The problem was the first match would have meant me facing Manchester City.

‘City boss Joe Royle was desperate for me not to play because I didn’t get on too well with him.

‘Well, I managed to get permission and you can guess the score – and the match winner!’

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