It's time for another three of Pompey's 1990s seasons to be recalled - by me and more importantly by you.

In my View from the North Stand column throughout 2024-25 we revisited Pompey's most recent 21 'second division' seasons to mark our return to the Championship. So we went back to 1983-84 and covered every one of the seasons in the second tier Pompey have played since.

Some were great seasons - some were awful. One or two fell between the extremes.

Not everyone sees the programme so on this website over summer, I am rehashing those columns, three at a time, featuring my own highlights and memories of those season and those of readers/followers too.

Tonight, we reach 'the Terry Fenwick years'...

1993-94

Although this series is a look back at our 21 most recent 'second division seasons' before the current one, you can't get away from the fact that one or two of them are better remembered for cup campaigns than for what we achieved – or didn't – in the league.

So it goes for 1993-94, a classic 'After the Lord Mayor's Show' season.

Its first third was okay and Jim Smith's team looked like they might be in the promotion mix as they looked to get over the bitter disappointment of missing out in the 92-93 play-offs.

But it faded badly – and it was no surprise that when I asked for memories from this campaign of 31 years ago, it was two cup ties far from Fratton that dominated the replies. In the space of five days in January, Pompey went to Blackburn and Manchester United – then the top two teams in English football – and drew 3-3 in the FA Cup third round and 2-2 in a League Cup quarter-final respectively.

Jim Foster said: "I remember Man Utd away - and leaving gutted because we had a stonewall penalty denied, Paul Parker upending Alan McLoughlin. A blatant pen not given. It was a brilliant match - I sat with the Mancs as I couldn’t get a ticket in the away end, and even they said it was a penalty."

Tommo (@baron_von_tommo) agreed: "United were an all-conquering side and we drew 2-2 thanks to two Walshie headers."

Wayne Harris enjoyed the replays (both of which were lost) as well as the original ties: "So privileged to see such great players visit Fratton Park in the replays. Cantona, Giggs and Keane for United and Shearer for Blackburn. So unlucky at Old Trafford too."

Bob Beech added: "I saw two scandalous draws at Old Trafford that season - Pompey being denied a stonewall penalty in the League Cup and Nigel Benn being robbed versus Chris Eubank."

Pompey George remembered this: "In the days when only Premier League clubs had player names on their shirts, our entire team had “Pompey” on their shirts versus Man Utd!"

Andrew Weller had vivid memories of both trips to the north west: "Paul Parker conceding a stonewall penalty that never was in front of 8,000 Pompey fans at Old Trafford - and a pie being "offered" to Alan Shearer from a long way back in the Darwen End, .all within five days in January."

Away from that cup double header, there was a Division One (as it was called then) and an Anglo Italian Cup campaign to get stuck into. On the league front, James Knibbs said: "The only game I saw was a televised game away to Charlton – a 1-0 win, Warren Neill with the goal - as I lived in London that year. They had a full-back wearing No1 as a squad number."

For the record, Pompey finished 17th – despite not having lost a league game between August 28 and November 27. Gerry Creaney, Macca and Walshie were joint top scorers with 11 each.

And by 93-94, the Anglo Italian Cup was in, err, full swing. Dan Almond recalled: "I travelled from Dublin to catch the second half of Portsmouth v Fiorentina. I seem to remember Claudio Ranieri rested Gabriel Batistuta." That is not the type of team news you had every week at Fratton in the 90s...

1994-95

I suppose it's a typical football fan's outlook. If you can't have a successful season yourselves, at least have some fun by piling misery on one of your rivals. And I think that's a fair way to sum up why some Pompey fans quite enjoyed the end of our 1994-45 season despite the Blues finishing a dismal 19th.

On the fourth Saturday of April we won 2-1 at Burnley – and relegated them. On the fifth Saturday of April we won 2-0 at Swindon – and relegated them too!

Steve JT67 on Bluesky remembers it well: "Preki scored v Swindon. We sent them down, having relegated Burnley the previous Saturday at Turf Moor, Kit Symons with a goal. We had, ahem, a couple afterwards in the cricket club and didn't leave until 8pm."

For the record, John Durnin got the other goal at Burnley while Deon Burton also scored at the County Ground.

Pompey Hobgoblin spoke of the Swindon trip and one other: "Swindon away, long live Preki, the second goal - rounding the keeper and slotting it in, if I remember. Then Luton away... drinking in Harpenden, we left 20 minutes before the game, just made it for kick-off then Kerry Dixon put them one up after about five minutes." Point of interest – that Luton game was played on the day of the first ever National Lottery draw.

Pompey 257 remembered Alan Knight having two great games as we knocked Everton out of the League Cup, with a 3-2 Goodison win and a 1-1 draw in the second leg.

Michael Saunders felt the Goodison tie was a sole 94-95 highlight: "Think the Everton away game is the only thing worth remembering from that season. Mad to think there was only 14,000 inside Goodison. The roar when Vinny Samways scored for them was as loud as I’d heard at an away game up to that point."

Other memories featured defeats! Here goes...

Gary Oliver: "I remember going to Watford away on Boxing Day and getting to the game late due to traffic on the M25, then Pompey – after losing 2-0 - having another game the next day (a 3-0 home win over Barnsley)."

Wayne Harris said: "I remember the Derby home game (lost 1-0). Eerily quiet. Just 5,507 in attendance. Think it was live on Meridian. The lowest league crowd at Fratton I can remember.”

'AndyPompey' recalls 94-95 for containing, as he puts it, 'another reason to really not like Leicester' – in the form of a controversial sending-off for Mr Knight in a Fratton FA Cup tie against them for sliding out to claim a ball on a wet pitch and his momentum carrying, in the eyes of the ref, marginally outside the box. Andy added: "Seeing The Legend getting his only red card in 801 games hurt. And I think he was in the area! On the plus side relegating both Burnley and Swindon in their own grounds and ‘doing the Fjortoft' was tremendous fun."

Dean Preston also recalled that latest Leicester injustice: "It was played in horrendous conditions (there’s a theme with them). We ended the game with nine men with The Legend sent off for handling outside the box… a shocking decision."

1995-96

Now it's the turn of 1995-96 – and in particular Pompey's efforts that season – to take centre stage. Well it had to be at some point.

And while I was not inundated with positive replies when asking for fans' memories and personal highlights of what was the first of two full seasons overseen by Terry Fenwick, the responses did show the campaign started and ended well. It was just most of what went in between that let us down.

The season began on Saturday, August 12, with a sun-baked 4-2 Fratton Park win over Southend - and a memorable Fratton Park crowd debut for Brad Sked.

Brad said: "I remember standing on a milk crate in the North Stand to see the pitch and being blown away that we were the greatest side ever! Was delighted to see we were top in tbe Sports Mail that evening. It was the ultimate Pompey welcoming experience in a way - get your hopes up and then..."

Quite, Brad. And then... after Southend were beaten, the Blues won only two more games before December dawned. Protests against Martin Gregory grew: at home to Huddersfield in November, red cards were handed to fans to show the under-fire chairmen – only for a Terriers player to be sent off, so the cards were wielded in his direction instead.

It was a mid-season FA Cup tie that John Tucker recalled: "We had a decent December and won four games, 'til we lost at Charlton on Boxing Day. I went to the Cup game at The Dell a bit more confident and on the way in, I was interviewed by the BBC and predicted a Pompey win. We got battered 3-0. No more need be said!"

Paul Sexstone was another whose main memory of 95-96 wasn't positive. He wrote: "For me, it was a feeling of disappointment with the form of Paul Walsh after his return - a couple of years after being absolutely electric for us. He then suffered a knee injury, forcing retirement. He’s still a hero for me though, as I choose to forget the 95/96 season. Carl Griffiths not being much of a ‘make-weight’."

For a couple of months at the start of '96, Pompey picked up a decent amount of points – but not enough to be safe before the run-in. And a run of one point from four games left us biting nails on the final day.

As many will recall, Pompey went to Huddersfield on the first Sunday in May needing to win and hope that Millwall didn't beat Ipswich. We did and they didn't.

Pompey George said: "My main memory of the whole season was dancing round my car in France while on holiday, having found a radio station with the end-of-season results." Tony Liddell was at Huddersfield for a great Pompey occasion: "I remember running on to the pitch at the end of the game and someone jumped on to my back. Turned round to see it was Martin Allen."

As I recounted in my section of the new Official History of Pompey book (which is still available to buy, by the way), director Terry Brady said after that last-day drama 'This must never happen again.' And it didn't – until 1998, oh and 2001...

Come back to this site soon for memories of 96-97, 97-98 and 98-99.

Photo: Action Images

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