A piece of history returns to Pompey
In the car park at Fratton Park a curious scene played out in front of a mixed audience of fans, staff and passers-by.
A van pulled up in Frogmore Road and two men, (one of them Pompey Director Mick Williams whose business collected and delivered it), climbed into the back to retrieve another piece of Blues history.
Carefully, they carried it into the car park and leaned it against the wall for some young fans to have their photographs taken with.
It was one of Pompey's precious international honours boards, believed lost some time ago.
In fact, eagle-eyed fan Matt Pantling spotted it for sale on the internet and lost no time in purchasing it – only to immediately return it to its rightful home at Fratton Park.
The board starts with Colin Clark's performances for Northern Ireland and ends with Svetoslav Todorov's with Bulgaria.
In between the appearances of Pompey legend Alan McLoughlin for the Republic of Ireland sit next to superstar Robert Prosimecki’s for Croatia.
Another Blues legend, Andy Awford, stood reading the names of so many past team-mates before posing to have his picture taken alongside it.
Engagement manager Micah Hall said: “This is just the first piece of lost history we are proud to see return to Fratton Park.
“There is no trophy room here. Most of our precious artefacts are in a number of secure places and will be brought back to Fratton Park as soon as we can raise the money to build a fitting museum or trophy room.
“Anyone interested in sponsoring it should contact us at info@pompeyfc.co.uk”
Some precious and unique items are missing and Hall underlined his determination to see them all back at Pompey.
He said: “Our first priority was to get the business back on its feet, but rest assured we have not forgotten anything.
“We will be working with our club historian on compiling a list of items missing from Fratton Park and the search for those will begin within days.”