FAN’S VIEW  2025/26 – PORTSMOUTH AWAY

Portsmouth 2 Oxford United 2

As an away member I purchase my tickets at the earliest opportunity. For this game that was on 16 March and for the Derby game it was a week later. I always opt to pick them up at the next home game. In this case it was the Hull fixture. At the collections window I gave my name and address and said Portsmouth and Derby please. The lady flipped through the envelopes and said “I’ve just got Derby” and handed me an envelope with Derby written on it. “But I’ve bought a Pompey one too”. “Look in the (Derby) envelope and see if it is in there.” I did and it wasn’t. Not surprised. “I can assure you I have purchased a Portsmouth ticket. What do I do now?” I was advised to go to one of the other ticket office windows which I did. There wasn’t a queue so I got straight in. I explained the situation. I was asked when I bought it and told them. A bit of computer checking was done, someone else was consulted and the conclusion was “we don’t know what’s happened to it”. But there was a solution, “We’ll tell Portsmouth and get them to print you another ticket to be collected there”.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t totally convinced that would happen. This wasn’t really why I’d paid for the privilege of getting my tickets early. Bit of stress involved as the game was a sell-out. I’ve almost always found the ticket office staff very helpful but a bit of admin inefficiency must have crept in over this period. My mate’s daughter also bought a ticket. When she opened the envelope with hers in, she found someone else’s too. (It wasn’t mine).

Just like last season I ended up driving myself and knowing where there was plenty of free street parking just over a mile from the ground, headed there again. Got there and noticed “residents parking only” signs up everywhere. Oh, bugger, what now? Drive around a bit then on closer inspection noted it was 4pm – 6pm only. Strange restriction times but there must be a reason for it. So then got parked easily by just gone 10:00.

Arrived at the ground with just under 2 hours to kick-off. At the ticket office I was told my ticket would be at the away end. I walked round there but nothing seemed open for business. I then spotted an Oxford fan with a white envelope. I asked him if he’d just picked his ticket up. He had. He nodded towards a gaggle of stewards inside the ground through the fencing and said they’d got some of the tickets to be picked up but not all of them yet. The stewards were friendly; a lady took my name and address and at last I had my match ticket in my possession.

One pint later in the away designated pub, the Good Companion, I was in the ground. Got to say for a Greene King pint in a plastic container it was rather drinkable.

I got quite close to my designated rail seat but like just about everyone else settled for one that wasn’t occupied – most were obviously with it being sold out. The tension and expectation were at the highest of levels and when the players and manager came before us that ramped it up even more.

In the first few minutes we rode along on that. When there’s so much noise in the away end it is difficult to gauge just what is coming from the home fans. They take a bit longer to get going because they take up their positions much closer to the start than travellers do. Our initial dominance had already started to somewhat subside when our fans sang “Where’s your famous atmosphere?”. Very much tempting fate, I thought we’ll soon hear it when/if they score. And almost straight after that they did with not even 10 minutes on the clock.

We’d almost gone behind even before then, Ciaron Brown hitting his own post. We were lucky. I think this all came about from a poor touch by Myles Peart-Harris when he really should have taken the ball on. Portsmouth almost made the most of this by being incisive.

The hosts worked the opener well. Having played the ball around a bit,  Keshi Anderson turned Stan Mills easily and his pass to Andre Dozzell was moved on first time to Connor Ogilvie. He took one touch to control and his second was a cross beyond the far post. It was headed right back into the danger zone by a Pompey head. In that zone there were three yellow shirts and Colby Bishop. Although Bishop couldn’t get hold of the ball it invitingly came off him to Anderson who dummied to shoot and took it round Yunus Konak with his right foot and scored with his left. It was a great finish but would it be harsh on Brown if I say he should at some stage have cut the ball out?

The biggest talking point of the game came only eight minutes later. Ogilvie, red card or not? On the day with the view I had I didn’t have a clue and couldn’t even have said for sure it was a yellow. I’ve since watched it back a few times. Initially I thought a bit harsh and had it in the “orange” category but having seen it some more have changed my mind and agree with the red. It was potentially really dangerous. There was a scissor motion with the apparent intent at least as much to get the man as the ball. On another day if Mills’s feet had been planted slightly differently serious injury could have resulted. And I’ll honestly say that if the boot had been on the other foot, I would not have defended the action if one of ours had been given their marching orders.

I listened to Talk Sport on the way home and the guys on there said red and reasoned why.

Naturally our fans celebrated as Ogilvie walked off but reality soon struck me, we don’t play very well against 10 men. The received wisdom is that it is hard to play against a side that is a man down. That’s because they usually drop deeper, defend for their lives and often carry a sense of injustice, rightly or wrongly, as an extra motivator.

That said surely with about an hour and a quarter remaining we should have been able to make that advantage count. And it was still as it had been at the outset, all about getting the three points, no matter how. Perhaps all we needed to do was be patient and it would come.

But at no time thereafter did it ever look like we had an extra man. I’d been impressed with our showing against Hull. There were times when I thought we looked a proper Championship passing side with Konak and Jamie Donley being instrumental in this. Once one or two get at it others are pulled along too and join in. We know Cameron Brannagan can pass a ball. When this takes place confidence flows. That’s what I was hoping our men would be able to do here. Get the opposition chasing the ball and the game. Didn’t happen. Konak was withdrawn at half time to be replaced by Will Vaulks and his long throws.

Extra man or not we could have been further behind by half time. We were sliced open and Jamie Cumming had to come out and dive bravely at the feet of Jordan Williams. It was crucial he got his timing right. Get it wrong and it could have been a penalty and possibly a red card. He did exceptionally well when, for a fraction of a second, it looked as if he might stay at home.

We started the second half like we had the first and this time we got rewarded for it. Brodie Spencer was the scorer; Stan was the man. Our right winger was our best player by a considerable distance. He really has come good. Defenders don’t like coming up against pace, that’s a given. Mills has pace and he is now putting some wicked crosses into the box. If only we had an out and out predator getting on the end of them. He is also demonstrating an ability to keep or get the ball back when he appears to have lost it. Neither is he averse to winding up opposing supporters from time to time.

Here he took the ball down the right touch line from inside our half and, facing two defenders, came inside and from distance had a shot with his left foot. Not a bad effort at all but I expected keeper Nicolas Schmid to deal with it. The spill was buried by the alert Spencer.

Now we were talking. Surely with so long to go momentum had to be fully shifting our way. But time ticked by and we weren’t doing it. Was I being too impatient? What happened in the 81^st minute told me that I was.

By then it was still 10 v 11 even though Portsmouth had been doing their best to even it up. In a way, you can’t blame them. It’s all about the points. In the 64^th minute Spencer was swapped for Shemmy Placheta. Our no.15 was on a booking. He’d just correctly escaped another one but this change was a sensible one. Terry Devlin cut back across our man looking for the inevitable contact. Just a free kick. Excellent refereeing. The guys on Talk Sport called this for what it was too.

We took the lead when Michal Helik, after using his body to great effect to win the ball, recycled the long throw with a centre a midfielder would have been proud of. Will Lankshear buried it emphatically at the far post with a diving header.

One of the things we have been very poor at is scoring goals, particularly so from open play and come the end of the season that could be one of a number of factors we’ll be pondering over in a campaign best forgotten. Coming into this game, other than Sheffield Wednesday, we had the joint worst goals per game scored along with Blackburn and Charlton at 0.925.

This time though we’d got two. It might be rare but we’d achieved it.

And one of our more recent strengths is that defensively if we make a mistake and concede we don’t cock up again and let another in. Our defence was joint 15^th in the charts of goals per game conceded. Worse than us were Pompey themselves, Wrexham, West Brom, Sheffield United, Hull, QPR and Leicester. We’d actually let in 10 fewer than the latter two.

So based on this it would be unlikely that we’d concede another, yes? But concede another we did just 6 minutes later. I just a little bit began to think that the three points might actually be ours and with that taking us out of the bottom three. How joyous would that have been? At the same time I wasn’t anywhere near convinced that our rearguard was looking as solid as it often is. Pompey won the ball back from a corner we’d headed away. Marlon Pack slipped the ball in to Millenic Alli and no-one went with him, Mills having temporarily ended up on the ground. We should have been marking much better than we were in the box. Dozzell converted without too much trouble. It was one of those FFS moments.

There were still three minutes of regulation plus added time in which to win or lose the game. Given their crowd if I had to pick a winner sadly it wouldn’t have been us.

Truthfully, I don’t think we deserved to win this. We were below par. Other than Mills no player stood out. Some were okay but okay doesn’t quite cut it given what we need to achieve in these final games. And I’m forced to say that Peart-Harris is disappointing me. When I first saw him, I thought he was better than what I’m now seeing.

We lacked creativity and much of our play was too slow to trouble the blue shirts. As I walked back to the car, I heard a young Pompey kid saying to his dad that “they didn’t create many chances against 10 men did they?”.

Fair play to Portsmouth, they were spirited. As expected in the circumstances we had the majority of possession (56.3%) but most of the stats show a fairly even game. No hint from them that one team had a numerical advantage. We only had one more shot than they did and we both had three on target. We touched the ball 24 times in their box, they had 27 touches in ours.

Like Charlton at home this felt 100% like we’d needlessly thrown the extra two points away. Add to that Hull at the Kassam too with Mark Harris failing to convert at the very death and that’s six more points we could/should have had. If we’d got those we’d be sitting quite pretty. Bet all other clubs can pick incidents themselves that scream they should have more points in the bank than they actually have.

As it is with just five remaining, we’ve not yet got into double figures in the games won column. That’s quite damning. We have not won in the last four and those two wins we’ve fairly recently got are about to drop off the last six form table.

No two ways about it, we’ve got to up our game.

Realistically it’s two from three to accompany Wednesday through the trap door. We’re up against Leicester and Easter Monday’s opponents in this regard.

Temptation has got the better of me and I have looked at all the remaining fixtures in this dog fight. Guessing at the outcomes never matches reality but I couldn’t help it. I got us to 49 points and relegated. One more and I reckon we’d have a marginally better than 50:50 chance of surviving.

I then again went through those five games we have left and forced myself to be more optimistic.

Watford, nothing to play for. Nine points off sixth place with five games left. Southampton occupy that place, are on fire and have a game in hand. Hull are fifth with two more points than the Saints.

Derby, eighth but three behind Southampton and five behind the Tigers. They visit St Mary’s on Saturday. If the home side win that would make it very difficult for the Rams to get top six. It could deflate them. Fingers crossed.

Wrexham, hammered at home 5-1 by Southampton, who leapfrogged them, in the week. They’re not on the form they were earlier in the season but their next game is at Birmingham who unfortunately are another of those teams going nowhere.

Sheffield Wednesday. Comment not needed. Except that they did get a draw at home to Leicester on Easter Monday. They have not got an away point since 9 Dec when they drew at Watford.

Finally, Millwall who I think are already just about nailed on for the play-offs. They’re on 72 points which is the same as second placed Ipswich and third placed Middlesbrough. They have a vastly inferior goal difference. Ipswich have two games in hand. I can’t see them going up automatically so could well be taking it relatively easily when we visit.

I still find it hard to get my head round why Leicester are where they are given the experience and quality of some of the players they have. I’m expecting them to win their next game at home to Swansea and their final game, also at home, to Blackburn. But they still have to go to Fratton Park. What a game that will be. They’re then home to Hull and Millwall. Hopefully by then the Lions will still need a point or three to be assured of the play-offs.

Portsmouth may have a game in hand but their next two games are away at Middlesbrough and home to Ipswich. Then that clash with Leicester. After that it is away at Coventry who by then will probably have been promoted and might also have already been crowned Champions. Their last two fixtures are in theory easier, away at Stoke and home to Birmingham.

I’ve not even considered WBA who already have 45 points, are unbeaten in six and are still to play Wednesday, along with Preston and Watford.  

There will be those inevitable twists and turns but the Baggies will probably be continuing in a straight line to safety.   

Thoughts on other matters

Questionable

Almost every time I fill in a survey I find there will be at least one question where the answers to choose from do not contain the truth but without picking one you can’t move on to the next question.

I recently filled in an Oxford United survey. One of the questions was “how do you usually follow Oxford United on match days when not attending?”. I would suggest whoever put this together does not really understand football or more to the point the supporters – and certainly not what makes the diehard football fan tick. The Barrow away on a Tuesday night types. The types that went to Gateshead twice for the FA Cup replay in arctic conditions in 2013. There is a fair few who attend every game and plenty more who rarely miss so “usually” hardly comes in to it.

There will come a time, perhaps very soon due to age, when I stop travelling the length and breadth of the country following the Yellows to every game but hopefully not quite yet.

Mrs FV has been a season ticket holder since the ‘80s but hardly ever travels to away games, it’s just not her thing so an appropriate option was available for her to pick but unprompted she said that for another question the answer that properly applied to her was not there. Oh for that box that allows any other comments – so often I feel the need to let rip.

Then another survey came along.  One “designed to refine and finalise the proposed offerings, including general admission, hospitality, and wider matchday experiences” that I completed too. I was going to make comment on that too but didn’t copy anything and the link has now unsurprisingly disappeared but I recall thinking the rail seating / safe standing option was a bit of an afterthought.

Out of touch

A canvasser for the Green Party knocked on our door the other day trying to drum up support for the local elections. Mrs FV answered and she told the fella that whilst we believe in green principles, recycling, saving the planet and all that, no way would we vote Green because of Ian Middleton and his attempts to screw up the future of Oxford United FC. What came next was a shock. He didn’t even know that OUFC are moving home. He lives not far outside Bicester.

Finances and the Future

Our annual accounts to the year end 30 June 2025 came out a couple of weeks ago. We recorded a loss of £17,479,972 after tax. That figure includes “substantial” investment in the new stadium. After excluding these losses the adjusted figure is £14,867,668. These losses reflect “the continued investment in the club, both on and off the pitch, required to ensure the club remains competitive both in the short and longer term”.

Net liabilities were £59,488,154 at 30 June 2025. “The shareholders remain highly committed to the club, demonstrated by the increase in amounts owed to group undertakings of £17,657,900 in the year”.

And as ever all this is about a year out of date.

Football is like no other business. The Championship has long been described as a basket case when it comes to finances. In the last couple of years that effect has filtered down to League one, and also League two and possibly beyond in some cases.

The total projected loss for all Championship clubs last season is £346m. Two clubs have still not submitted their accounts for this period. In the past 10 years Championship clubs have lost £3bn.

It is easy to take this all for granted. There are many “wrong un’s” who have ruined football clubs but in many other cases fans need to be eternally grateful for owners who continually cover these losses. I know I am and have to keep reminding myself of this from time to time.

Is it all on a cliff edge?

Portsmouth chairman Michael Eisner said this week that “No club can survive for the long-term in this system and if that continues, catastrophe will happen.”

In 24/25 three clubs made a profit. Luton £17m and Sheffield United £2.6m but the key here being they were in receipt of parachute payments. The other club was Stoke City who recorded a massive £60m profit. Impressive? Not really. That figure only came about because the owners wrote off £90m.

The BBC have reported “Bristol City (£111m), Preston (£84.4m), QPR (£82.9m) and Middlesbrough (£80.4m) have all failed to record a profit for five consecutive seasons – as have Derby, Millwall, Oxford, Portsmouth and Swansea.”

It’s the same at most clubs, the owner(s) get bored, or some might say come to their senses, and stop funding the losses. Or their financial circumstances change and they no longer have the funds to do so. We’re in uncertain financial times globally and various economies and mega rich people will be impacted in different ways.

But I can dream can’t I and believe that we will get the new ground built on the Triangle in time for the start of the 28/29 season and that with the income streams this will bring into the club we’ll get as close as damn it to breaking even.

Meanwhile the Friends of Stratfield Brake are posting bullshit like this, “the club’s attitude to biodiversity on the site has been dismissive from the outset.”

When does the deadline for their appeal for a judicial review expire?

Just to repeat the title Friends of Stratfield Brake is a misnomer in that OUFC’s new ground is not going to be on that site. So for the same people, whoever they are, to have carried on under that banner doing everything they can to oppose the football club moving to the Triangle is obviously nothing but vexatious. If they had genuine interest for the environment in the local area and were awake and aware of what actually goes on, they would have spotted the150m long and 10m high illegal waste dump. That’s longer than a football pitch. Don’t tell me that no-one saw trucks dumping that waste which must have taken place over several months or many lorries all in one go over a few nights. The latter is apparently the most likely scenario. But hey, let’s not worry about that. No campaigning and song and dance about the waste. Let’s see if we can spot a great crested newt in the vicinity of Oxford Parkway station. Or is it that the FOSB don’t live locally and don’t have a clue?

Back to our owners, basically now that’s Erick Thohir. Thanks for getting us this far. I totally get the attempts to get an Indonesian link up with financial benefits that market will bring but I don’t think there’s any getting away from the fact that the pre-season tour set back our preparation for the challenges of tier 2 football.

We paid £1.6m – £1.7m for Indonesian international Ole Romney in January last year, a club record at the time. He’s made nine starts and come on as sub 19 times since he’s been with us and has scored just once. This suggests that neither Gary Rowett nor Matt Bloomfield really think he’s got it.

I hope as a club we learn as we go and moving on can get a meeting of minds to come up with a solution that cracks the Indonesian market whilst doing nothing detrimental on the playing side. Not easy obviously but that would be a huge step forward imho.