Avram Grant has never struck you as a kind of William Wallace, freedom fighter-type figure, but he did a good impression of Braveheart in the immediate aftermath of Portsmouth’s epic FA Cup quarter-final victory over Birmingham City in the early Saturday afternoon sunshine on the south coast.
“You can break many things but you cannot break our spirit,” he declared after what was a thoroughly deserved win. It wasn’t delivered with a loud, guttural roar as much as a clear, somewhat shy, determination, but the message was clear. Portsmouth’s players and staff don’t want to let their club die, and they are doing a great job of trying to save it.
The off-field mismanagement, irresponsibility and rampant greed may have seen the club crumble from the inside, but there remains a football team with football matches to play, and players who wear the Pompey shirt with pride.
Players like Jamie O’Hara and Saturday’s double goalscoring hero Frederic Piquionne. Neither are owned by Portsmouth, both will head back to their parent clubs in the summer, and both could look upon their stay at Pompey as “just another loan spell”, but they are the lights that are shining brightest in Grant’s squad.
Veterans like David James – three times an FA Cup finalist – and Hermann Hreidarsson – relegated from the Premier League with four different clubs, surely soon to be five – also continue to give their all for the team.
The duo were singled out for praise by Grant after the match, who claimed that their efforts were “important for the spirit of football.” If he wasn’t so modest he’d be saying the same about his own hard work.
The Israeli was almost fighting a losing battle from the moment he walked back through the doors of Fratton Park – where he was “Technical Director” in 2006 – but he has managed to technically direct his team into the semi-finals of the FA Cup despite all of the inevitable distractions. If it wasn’t for the nine-point administration penalty that will soon be imposed they’d have a real chance of survival in the league too.
It is the off-field chaos that will see Portsmouth start next season in Championship, but it is Grant’s on-field nous and the passion of his players that will see them line up at Wembley against Fulham or Tottenham on the weekend of 10th April.
The FA Cup semi-final represents a gift for all of Pompey’s much-fabled support, who have been put through the wringer on an almost daily basis this season.
The romance of the Cup is such that a win for Portsmouth in the final isn’t beyond the realms of possibility, but any unlikely success shouldn’t be celebrated by those who have run the club into the ground off the pitch.
If Pompey’s players are parading the trophy around Wembley on 15th May it will be purely down to their drive and determination, all guided by a highly-skilled manager.
You can take their points, their players, their Premier League status, but you’ll never take Portsmouth’s passion.
As long as Grant is at the helm, they’ll battle on to the death.
Mark Jones
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