Portsmouth

Portsmouth defied all the prophets of doom by making a superb start to their first-ever 
Premier League campaign. Unbeaten in their opening five games ‘Pompey’ proudly topped 
the table after three fixtures but three consecutive defeats burst the bubble before Harry 
Redknapp’s team responded by beating Liverpool, with a goal from former Anfield star, 
Patrik Berger. By the end of September Portsmouth had dropped to ninth, in fact, after 
the great start, the team slid down the table for most of the season and at the end of 
the year were 16th. But despite successive defeats to Newcastle and Manchester United 
Portsmouth showed character by crushing relegation-threatened Leeds United 6–1.

‘Pompey’ recovered early in the New Year with victory over Manchester City and a draw 
with Wolves but dropped down to 17th and suddenly it was a struggle to avoid the quick 
return to Division One the sceptics had predicted.

Harry Redknapp, fighting with a lack of resources, not to mention injuries, managed to 
stabilise in 17th place, but it wasn’t easy and after losing at Anfield on 17 March the 
team were just two points above the relegation zone but then managed to string together 
a mini-run of three wins and a draw before the result that really kicked the survival surge 
into overdrive, a 1–0 win over Manchester United, with a Steve Stone goal.

In their last 10 games Portsmouth lost just once, against Leicester, but by then safety 
had been assured. In fact in moving up to 14th Pompey were actually the Premiership’s 
form team of April in winning three and drawing one of their four fixtures that month and 
finished eight points clear of the last relegation place.

Portsmouth finished the campaign in style with Ayegbani Yakuba hitting four goals in the 
5–1 victory over Middlesbrough taking his tally, to 11 in the that 10-game run but it was 
stopping goals that were Portsmouth’s main problem, all season. They conceded 54 but 
another contributory factor to the struggle was a poor away record as just two games 
were won away from Fratton Park. Fortunately 10 home games were won and that was 
the foundation on which Harry Redknapp built to keep Portsmouth in the Premier League. 
Sad then that the achievement was sullied by the end of season row with Milan Mandaric, 
Portsmouth owner and chairman, reportedly over plans to bring in a younger, foreign, 
coach, to replace Jim Smith, Harry’s right-hand man in achieving what many thought was 
not possible. How pleased Redknapp must have been when he received his Manager of the 
Month award, for April, prior to kick off against ’Boro on the last day, with Premiership 
football to look forward to in 2004–05, for the club, at least.

Managers

Harry Redknapp          March 2002–