Fortress Fratton

"The Park"

It's an old cliché and it's been quoted by managers, players and fans alike throughout the history of our club. "People don't like coming to Fratton Park", they say. There's a whole host of reasons of course; the old facilities, the lack of roof on the away end, the fact the dressing room isn't heated and the showers break, the proximity of the players to the crowd, and of course the noisy nature in which the Fratton fans get behind the team. A combination of these things have brought down even the mightiest names in the game - a 2-0 win over Manchester United, anyone? It's not just recent history either; even when we won our first ever title in 1949, we were unbeaten at home the entire campaign. Even when we nearly got relegated under Pulis, Claridge and finally Rix in 2001, our nine home wins were a huge factor in keeping us out of trouble.

Starting 364 days ago, we went on a truly unbelievable home run. Chelsea ran out 2-0 winners at Fratton Park under the floodlights on 11th February, but no-one else took three points away down the Eastern Road until Everton, on the 26th of September. Admittedly a run disrupted by the summer break and excluding a 5-1 drubbing from Arsenal, but over seven months without a home league defeat is certainly a record to be proud of.

But this year, the wheels just seem to have come off a bit. Some people are keen to jump on the "Let's Blame Velimir" stagecoach, but even before then there were signs that teams were beginning to work us out. Manchester City and Everton were two good examples of teams stopping us from playing, and then imposing themselves on the game. More recently, Blackburn did a similar thing - and of course today's visitors Villa, despite looking very ordinary, still managed to depart as winners.

2002/3 home record; W17, D3, L3

It's an interesting change, and a difficult one to fathom. Obviously there's the fact that we have lost our entire coaching staff and had to start again from scratch, with a new manager and a whole set of players he has to get used to. But even last year, we seemed to lose the games people expected us to win - we were Everton's only away win, Charlton snatched a winner in injury time, Leicester got relegated but beat us fairly comfortably - there's just something about being the favourites that seems to ruin us. But even though those three games just mentioned were in the Redknapp-era, things seemingly haven't changed - playing a team in the bottom three at home with ten men for eighty-five minutes might seem like a nailed on victory, but even then Norwich got a point.

The bottom line is that coming to Fratton Park just doesn't seem to bother teams as much any more. I have a theory of my own on this, and that is that it's because now people know what to expect. Last season, we were the surprise package. The likes of Manchester United and Arsenal laughed at the thought of coming here. "Hmph," they exclaimed, "They've just been promoted from Division One so therefore we're going to win." Midtable teams also didn't take us seriously, expecting just to turn up and win, after all, they've been in the Premiership for a while so deserve to. We've done the same this season, expecting to beat the promoted sides easily - the boos after the Norwich game summed that up, and the refusal to accept they've possibly played well.

Now, people know that we like to play football and that, on our day, we're a decent side. So they make life difficult for us and hassle us off the ball. They don't give us the chance to settle and they pay very close attention to players like Yakubu. Add a pinch of complacency and sprinkle on the fact that Zajec is a more defensive manager than Redknapp, and you've got our home problem.

Can we address the situation? I certainly hope so. Looking at our remaining fixtures, you have to say that they're not the toughest. Charlton, Southampton and Bolton are our best chances to edge closer to 40 points. But knowing our fondness for turning over the unlikely teams and falling when tipped as winners, who's to say it won't be Newcastle and Liverpool who help secure our Premier League status by kindly donating three points to our league account.