Notts County (a) - the best day of my life

Growing up as a Pompey fan in the 2000’s I saw the best years of their modern history. There were five trips to Wembley, seven seasons in the Premiership and a European tour. So I never thought that my best memory, my favourite game; quite possibly the best day of my life, would be a League 2 away tip to Notts County.

Portsmouth had been stuck in English football’s basement for four years and until a rather raucous tip to Crawley, looked like spending a fifth. Paul Cook’s patient, possession-based style of play was dominant and eloquent yet unable to break down teams that would stick 10 men behind the ball. After a defeat at home to Crewe, it looked like Pompey’s promotion hopes were over and even the playoffs could be a close call. But, a Christian Burgess header gave Pompey a much needed win over Crawley and so Pompey’s promotion hopes were reignited and the ‘we’re on our way’ chant was born

The Crawley win put them into third but Plymouth and Doncaster had opened up a six and 10 point gap respectively. Winning the league looked impossible and with the four teams in the playoff positions all lurking within 5 points, the last 11 games of the season would be nail-biting. But, it wasn’t. From those 11 games, Portsmouth won nine: drawing once and losing once. That’s 28 points out of the 33 on offer, quite simply a remarkable return. The most important of those wins, however, came at Meadow Lane against Notts County.

Having drawn 1-1 at home to Plymouth, Pompey found themselves eight points ahead of Luton with four games left to play. Therefore, if Luton dropped points and Pompey beat Notts County, they would be promoted to League One. However, with just 12 points to play for, Doncaster found themselves 10 points ahead in first and Plymouth were four points ahead in second. It certainly looked like a third place finish for Portsmouth…

Saturday 17th April 2017. The day that 4000 Portsmouth fans travelled up to Nottingham, hoping, dreaming that their team would finally escape from the cursed pit of English football. The day that Portsmouth beat Notts County 3-1. The day that Portsmouth gained promotion and the day that hundreds of thousands of dreams and wishes came true.

As kick-off approached, newspapers were handed around and ripped up ready to be thrown in the air, all sorts of inflatables were bouncing around a completely blue Jimmy Sirrel Stand. Anticipation was building, nerves were building and the Pompey chimes were being sung.

Things got off to a great start. With 13 minutes gone, Kal Naismith was brought down in the box. Gareth Evans calmly slotted the penalty away and sent the away stand into a frenzy. The now Pompey fan’s favourite had been playing out of position at right-back all season. This was just the start of a mutual, loving relationship between player and club.

Of course, things never go smoothly. As Christian Burgess and Michael Doyle both went up for the same ball, the former was caught out of position and Jorge Grant capitalised, equalising for the party-pooping home side. Things were now very tense. A lot of fingernails were now considerably shorter in length. And, in typical Pompey fashion, Luton equalised at the exact same time. Momentum had completely swung against Pompey getting promoted.

That is until Jamal Lowe scored a wonderful goal in the 77th minute. Picking the ball up on the left wing, he cut inside on his favoured right foot and curled one past the helpless County ‘keeper. A fantastic finish and exactly the type of quality that Pompey had begun to expect from their non-league signing. Yet it wasn’t even his best goal of the match...

With just minutes remaining, Luton were still drawing, Pompey were still 2-1 up and Kyle Bennett had just been fouled by the halfway line. A perfect opportunity to waste time and see out the win. But, captain Doyle thought differently. Spotting Lowe making a run through the County defence he took the free-kick quickly and all of a sudden Lowe was in with just the keeper to beat. It’s times like this where the class of a player shows: through on goal and looking likely to score the goal that seals promotion for your club. What do you do? Well, if you’re Jamal Lowe you cooly chip it over the keeper. No complacency, no worries, no doubts. Some might say it was nonchalant, fantastic, brilliant.

It’s these moments that are the sheer euphoria that football fans crave. As Lowe was running through to win the game, time truly did stand still. I’ve watched that goal thousands of times trying to relive that moment and recapture that feeling of unrelenting happiness. We travel miles up and down the country spending every other Saturday afternoon in the same seat surrounded by the same people in the hope that it one day leads to just a brief moment like that. Stood there in the spring sunshine on a football pitch in Nottingham not knowing whether to laugh, cry or scream because Jamal Lowe chipped the ‘keeper.

April 17th 2017. The day that a group of lower league journeymen, up and coming youngsters and approaching retirees became immortal figures of Portsmouth Football Club’s history. Carried off the pitch as heroes by thousands of jubilant fans. Being serenaded by thousands of Pompey fans now filling the Notts County pitch.

And as things died down and players began dispersing to the dressing room, one player remained: Gary Roberts. “Gary, give us a song” sung the supporters. Silence fell around Meadow Lane for the first time that afternoon until a lone voice shouted “JAMAL LOWE” and the Pompey fans broke into Spandau Ballet for one last time.

As the 4000 strong Pompey following began making their way south, one coach in particular was getting drunker and drunker. By the time it pulled up at Fratton Park, a collection of fans had waited to greet their heroes. The Victory Lounge was opened and an unforgettable night of players, coaching staff and fans united in song and booze began.