Portsmouth's Beginnings
The club has had a long association with the British armed forces, especially the Royal Navy to whom Portsmouth is their home port. But Pompeys roots came from the Royal Artillary Club team that was based in the city. The Royal Artillary team was an amateur club that was founded in 1883, and had played in the Southern League, but were suspended for a breach of the leagues rules, and so the people of Pompey found themselves with no football team to follow.
So a group of city business men met in at their solicitors on the 5th of April 1898 and set the wheels in motion for the foundation of a club that would still be in existance well over one hundred years later.
So on the 2nd of September 1898, Pompey played there first match in their famous errrrrrrrr Salmon Pink strip and the crowd calling them by the nickname they got, 'the shrimps!!! The first match was against that forgotten football great Chatham and the Shrimps! won 1-0. The 1898 season was fantastic they won a lot of games and ended up as runners up in the Southern league to some team that went on to be known as "Tottenham Hotspur."
The Road To Wembley - FA Cup History
The Early Days.1899-1929
Well the earliest appearance, and success that I can find for Pompey in the FA cup stems from the 1899/00 season, with the first match away against local non-league rivals Bedminster Town in the 5th Qualifying Round. Pompey won that match 2-1, and that set up a draw with the then mighty Blackburn Rovers. Pompey as the new chaps in the league aquitted themselves well with draw’s (0-0 and 1-1) home and away before the tie had to be settled at the neutral venue of Villa Park, with Blackburn winning 5-0! Strangely though if they had had the away goal rule back then Pompey would have won this tie!
Only two years later in the 1901/02 season saw Pompey feature in the Quarter Finals of the cup for the first time, with a run that included wins over Small Heath (Man Utd nowadays!), Grimsby and Reading. Pompey met Derby County in their quarter final, and after drawing the initial game lost the replay 3-6!
Three Finals in a Decade 1929-1939
For the remaining part of the early part of the twentieth century Pompey did not really register on the FA Cup radar, mainly due to their non-league status until the 20’s which meant that they had to enter the qualifying rounds. However Pompey certainly registered on the FA Cup radar from 1929 to 1939.
In the 1928/1929 season Pompey achieved their best cup run so far, reaching the final, along the way they disposed of Charlton, Bradford, Chelsea West Ham, and Aston Villa in the Semis before losing 2-0 to Bolton Wanderers in the final.
Creditable Fifth round appearances followed in the 1930/31 and 31/32 seasons followed, and in the 1933/34 season Pompey found themselves in their second cup final. This cup run started and ended with Manchester Clubs, with Pompey beating Man Utd in the third round, but ultimately being beaten by Manchester City 2-1 in the final, along the way they beat Grimsby, Swansea, Bolton, a small measure of revenge for 5 years earlier and Leicester City.
Then came… The Most significant event of 1939.
Ok lets get the bragging out of the way nice and early in this section, Pompey hold a record that no team is ever likely to beat, and no team has even looked likely to beat. The Boys in Blue have held the FA Cup for a record 7 years running! Yep that’s 7 years in a row that the famous old cup never left Pompeys grip.
Pompey got to this final by wins over, Lincoln, West Brom, West Ham, Preston North End and Huddersfield Town. However many folks at the time saw the final as a walk over for Wolves, and Pompey were just expected to make up the numbers. Things didn’t work out like that and Pompey found themselves 4-1 winners and in need of a lot of silver polish to last the next 7 years.
1898 - 1939 1940 - 1959 1959 - 1986 1987 - 1998