Is there some kind of rule that the furthest away game of the season has to be a midweek encounter? It certainly seems so...

When I look back on all the visits I’ve made to Fratton Park the majority seem to have been on a Tuesday night. There was the time I raced from London in an hour to just make kick off after working at Earl’s Court.

My loyalty was rewarded with three points, although they were added to my driving licence not our league total after I got done by a speed camera on the A3 en route. That’ll teach me to drive too fast, well actually it won’t, it’s fun and driving slow’s for girls...

And last season’s debacle down there could only happen to Sunderland. Recall if you can bear to... last away game of the season, desperate for three points to secure our safety, away end packed out. First half pretty ordinary, nil nil at the break, Pompey looking very poor.

Then on the hour mark Davenport goes on a mad run and crosses to Jones who puts us one nil up and we’re staying up, the Mags are going down and Ashley is a clown. We celebrate madly for all of erm 90 seconds and then the ball hits Grant Leadbitter in the face and creates an opportunity for Portsmouth to level, which, of course, they do.

Ten minutes later and thanks to comedy defending from Bardsley (OG), and Ferdinand (air clearance) we lose 3-1 and have to beat Chelsea at home last day of the season to stop up. No pressure there then.

We all know it worked out fantastically well in the end (Toon Doon), but I can’t remember feeling so low driving back from an away game as I did coming back home that night. An overnight drive home too, just to make matters worse.

So all this is going through my head as I head down south alone. Why do I do it? Will they reward me with a victory tonight, or even play well? I switch up the volume on the iPod which is connected to my car stereo and blast out Teenage Fanclub, put my foot to the floor and watch the miles fly by. I forget about Sunderland Football Club for a while and my mood lifts dramatically!

I arrive in good time and in high spirits and head off to the pub with some mates who’ve made the short trip from London and we enjoy some pre match lubrication and a sing song to get us in the mood.

The team was announced and there was no real surprises. Steed replaced the injured Hendo and apart from that it was the same side as on Saturday: Gordon, Hutton, Turner, Kilgallon, McCartney, Malbranque, Cana, Cattermole, Reid, Bent, Jones. On the bench we had: Liddle, Carson, Zenden, Meyler, Mwaruwari, Da Silva, Bardsley.

Well once the match started what can I say? Rollercoaster-game. Really very little really happened apart from... Bent being brought down early on and converting the spot kick after they rightly went down to ten men. Cattermole getting a red after winning the ball, but if you go in like that these days what dya expect?

Then the ultimate kick in the balls. Meyler comes on, Meyler goes offs. Another red card, down to nine men. Six minutes extra time. Seconds to go they equalise.

We should have taken our chances when we had them and been 2-0 up at half time. Pompey have been behind fifteen times this season and lost thirteen of them. Twice they’ve come back and drawn. Both times against Sunderland. What does that say?

Final Score: 1-1

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Roy Greenwood

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