Neville Dalton is a journalist with the BBC News website and a Portsmouth fan of nearly 40 years. His expressed views are his and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Highs and lows of Premiership Pompey

Go on, admit it.

Even those few of you who were refusing publicly to give up on Pompey knew in your heart of hearts that we were going down.

If you'd watched them, or even just followed their fortunes, for more than half a dozen games this season, your subconscious would have been trying to inject some reality into even the most upbeat assessments of Pompey's chances of survival – particularly in the couple of months either side of Christmas.

When we played half-decently, we were pipped at the post as we provided our customary – albeit momentary – lack of concentration.

We couldn't even beat 10-man teams in two key early-season games.

When Harry bought (and I mean bought) the cavalry, we still couldn't get it right. Over-cautious; persisting with players who weren't up to the task, even our better players could rarely get it right in the same game.

After we lost at home to Manchester United – itself no disgrace – in February, I was convinced it was the last time I'd have the privilege of watching the giants of the Premiership and Europe in a top-level match against Pompey.

By the time we played their city rivals a month later, I was certainly not in the minority in believing we were all but relegated.

We all know what happened next, but the magnitude of Pompey's achievement in the final seven or eight weeks of the season can only really be fully appreciated by remembering just how desperate things were just those few weeks earlier.

Eight points from a safe spot, two inconsistent, but spirited, teams still to be overhauled. But worst of all, no hint of where a goal – let alone a win – was going to come from.

We could hardly even string two unbeaten games together, let alone win two on the trot.

Our top scorers were a midfielder and defender, and we'd just emerged from a particularly tricky run of games against most of the top sides with precisely our expected reward – nothing.

Confidence must have been great!

There have been many reasons for our revival, none of which would have worked on its own.

The new boys began to integrate into the team, albeit a good two months after joining.

Key figures, like Davis, D'Alessandro, Mwaruwari and particularly Mendes, led by example (joining Gary O'Neil, whose own magnificence should be seen in the context of the landscape of mediocrity in which he had had to perform for more than half the season – at least the new lads had quality around them by the time they started to excel).

Redknapp found himself in such a mire that he appeared to opt to go for broke, eschewing his uncharacteristically cautious approach to team selection that had contributed to our accelerated decline, and backing his players with positive tactics – a philosophy his teams are traditionally more comfortable with.

Marginalised players, like Brian Priske and Linvoy Primus, suddenly became key figures. In fact, if the season had been two months long, the Dane would have been my choice for Player of the Season, so intrinsic was his role in everything that unfolded in the final nine or 10 games.

But one of the biggest changes came at Pompey's Eastleigh training ground and the Fratton Park dressing room, which appeared to have been transformed into a chemistry lab.

What other explanation could there be for the radical change in the players, their willingness to run for the club, for the supporters - for their manager?

Harry Redknapp is a lot of things (and not all of them charming), but he certainly knows how to get a bunch of highly-paid, under-performing footballers to reach new heights, or to rediscover old ones.

Apart from the performances by the likes of Priske, Mendes, Davis and Kiely, we saw the best of LuaLua, who at the start of that vital unbeaten run harnessed match-winning end-product and awareness of other players to his undoubted array of phenomenal but frustratingly unpredictable skills.

Richard Hughes suddenly looked the solid performer that those of us with long memories recalled from his early days with the club (although ironically, just as he hit form, Sean Davis was signed and he lost his place).

Matt Taylor looked like he was prepared to die for the cause (although to be fair, he had shown similar attitude under Perrin).

And even Andy O'Brien appeared free of the shakiness that had afflicted most of his season.

Debate may continue to rage over whether Harry Redknapp should have come back to Pompey, and those first three months in charge should not be overlooked in judging him.

But the transformation of a plucky but limited side into one of the most attractive and effective in the Premiership must put to bed any lingering questions over how good a manager he can be.

Next week: My Pompey team of the year.