Richard turned out to be excellent company - I was impressed with his tally of 15 Spurs games this season, given his home location- and we met up with a few other friends, a mix of Spurs and Portsmouth followers, for a nice spot of Sunday lunch and a few beers near to Marlybone Station as the sun shone down on London.
Having seen Tottenham play twice in person in their cup run as well as the two televised replays that followed, they were strong favourites for the match with plenty of players in the team capable of winning the game. The fact that Portsmouth had got this far in the cup was nothing short of miraculous having spent most of the season facing financial oblivion and having their relegation from the Premier League confirmed just 24 hours earlier. Manager Avram Grant is clearly a man up for challenge having previously made his name in English football as the less than popular successor to Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, the team who will provide the opposition for today's winners in the final.
The early afternoon passed fairly quickly and pleasantly and soon it was time to make the short hop by train to Wembley Stadium, having previously used the tube for visits to Wembley this is a much better way to get there a far less crowded and much quicker ten minute hop to Wembley Stadium station.
Stepping off the train, I caught my first sight of the new Wembley for the first time - the journey from Manchester to London had taken me past but I had been sat on the wrong side for a sighting.
On the walk to the ground, I cast my mind back to my three previous visits. The first was Bolton's 2-1 Coca Cola Cup Final defeat in 1995 and the last in 2000 was an FA Cup Semi, Bolton losing this time on penalties to Aston Villa 4-1 after a 0-0, the sight of Dean Holdsworth blazing over a gaping goal after an excellent cut-back from Eidur Gudjohnsen ten minutes before the end is still emblazoned on my memory. Sandwiched in between was a 0-0 draw between England and Saudi Arabia. It was interesting to note that David James was on the winning team for both the Bolton games, contributing some excellent saves and would be facing Gudjohnsen at Wembley again today.
The ground looked fine from the outside, and the turnstile queues after the short walk from the station moved very swiftly. Inside there was a quick search from the stewards, what really impressed me was that they were kitted out with plastic glasses for fans to decanted any canned or bottled soft drinks they had rather than just make you throw it away. Another big plus were the escalators which rapidly transported me to the top tier where my seat awaited.
On emerging into the stand, Wembley still holds that wow factor for me. The only other stadium that I visited of comparable size is Old Trafford, but Wembley's more spacious design gives a better view from the top in my opinion and it also has the advantage of the entire seated area being visible too.
The pre-match parade of flags and handshakes were soon concluded and the match was underway, Tottenham fans giving voice to thei excellent slowed down then speeded up version of "When the Spurs go marching in" "Play up Pompey" was provided by way of retaliation but the bell ringing normally prevalent at Portsmouth games could not be heard from where I was. Spurs dominated the early possession and territorial advantage and width was provided by Bentley and more so Gareth Bale. Portsmouth managed to cope admirably well with the balls into the box to deny any early clear-cut chances and looked willing, if not able to mount counter attacks.
Sadly, the first half failed to live up to the occasion with Tottenham largely unable to find the space and precision required to overcome a resolute Portsmouth team and I found my attention increasingly drawn towards the camera suspended high above the pitch as it "flew" back and forth. By half time the teams had managed to eke out three chances, James doing well to deny Crouch and Huddlestone and a good block from Gomez when Piquionne got himself clear on a rare raid.
The second half was not a great improvement, Harry Redknapp soon lost patience with Defoe who never looked in danger of adding to his 5 FA Cup goals and replaced him with the recently in form Pavlyuchenko. The first real hint of a goal was when Aaron Mokoena manged to steer the ball past his own keeper before recovering to clear the ball for a corner. Crouch managed to hit the woodwork and David James's legs from a couple of scruffy chances towards the end of 90 minutes and the introduction of Kranjcar failed to unlock the goal Spurs needed.
Another 30 minutes and quite possibly penalties were looming, 9 minutes later and the unthinkable happened and Portsmouth scored. The Wembley pitch has come in for a lot of criticism for its lack of grip and Michael Dawson fell victim as he slipped in an attempt to clear a knock-down leaving Frederic Piquionne a simple tap in past Gomez and completely silencing all the Spurs fans around me, leaving the Portsmouth cheers sounding very distant.
Tottenham attempted to fight back and Crouch had a goal ruled out and James managed to deny Corluka who possibly took a second to long to take his chance. With the end of extra time approaching, Didane broke free and left Palacios for dead before being brought down and the referee generously sparing the red card. Former Spurs player Prince-Boateng stepped up and placed a good spot kick beyond Gomez's reach to conclude the match. Half the Spurs fans had headed for the exits before the spot kick was taken knowning the game was up and 6 minutes later Portsmouth had pulled off an amazing semi final upset. Having tasted Wembley defeat twice I could relate the dejection from around me but what an amazing turn of events for Portsmouth fans.
