Neville Dalton is a journalist and
I had the joy and privilege of witnessing at first hand possibly Pompey's greatest performance in my 40 years of watching them.
OR: I was at
OR: My experience of a lifetime at
OR: I was at a game where Pompey "played a type of football that relied on the usual steady stream of crosses to find the towers… Everything was going right for the English side" (La Gazetta dello Sport).
Apparently, Milan's XI was a million miles from the line-up that had beaten Liverpool in the Champions League final last year, and had nine changes from the side that played Torino the previous Sunday (Telegraph again).
Yet no mention of the four key players missing from Pompey's line-up.
And there was plenty more like that.
As a journalist, I'm not knocking the reports of that historic game, one none of us thought we'd ever see.
There are good journalists and bad journalists; good, fair reports and biased, agenda-setting ones.
Although in the case of the first two snippets I quote above, I sense a degree of misjudgment there - was it really a nightmare? It was the best Pompey match I've ever seen.
Were
They might have been standing in admiration, swallowing a little pride to acknowledge how magnificent their sworn enemies had played.
They might even have had a snigger at the two late goals that robbed Pompey of such a famous win and two valuable Uefa Cup group points.
But Pompey drawing with
The point I'm making is how differently everybody sees the same game.
These message boards show clearly how we all have different opinions; different favourites; different scapegoats.
Man of the match
But a trawl of Friday's papers, conversations with fellow fans and a glance at the range of Milan-related topics on these message boards have shown just how subjective subjectivity is.
Kanu man of the match (BBC Sport website readers). Kanu brilliant (most newspapers, one or two fans on these forums and my Dad).
To me, while Kanu showed several of his sublime touches that light up virtually every game he plays, and put in an excellent cross for one of Crouch's misses, much of the game seemed to pass him by - a point echoed by several of those around me in the North Stand - and his lack of mobility once again limited Pompey's attacking options.
Richard Hughes man of the match (Pompey website - and presumably official verdict). Now this is going to divide you lot: Played better than Papa Bouba Diop (my Dad again).
Yes, I thought Hughes stood up magnificently to the seven-times European champions, putting in some crucial tackles and playing one or two terrific, imaginative balls out to the flanks.
Yet his lack of pace was exposed time and again by Milan (not the worst sin in the world, let's face it), and after several recent performances, where he has come out of his shell and played a far more positive game, I felt Hughes retreated a little and directed too many balls backwards or sideways at times when Pompey could have done with maintaining their attacking momentum.
It's not a criticism of Hughes, who I felt thoroughly deserved his place and has rendered the loss of Diarra much less of a problem than most of us feared. It's just another example of how different expectations affect our assessment.
Take Diop, for example (and I know many wish someone would). I've never been his biggest critic nor staunchest supporter.
But I do feel he is largely unfairly maligned, particularly since he has been forced to play much of his Pompey career in a position to which he's obviously not suited.
I don't think he was magnificent on Thursday - and he has to be the worst at shooting I've ever seen at the Park - but I do think he had one of his best and most constructive games for Pompey, doing the breaking-up role that Hughes also does well, but combining it with great commitment and positivity, often responsible for maintaining that very momentum I felt we sometimes lost with Hughes.
One or two fans on here seem to agree with me. Even his critics were largely positive about him.
Only those blinkered, dogmatic ones resorted to the sort of dismissive aggression that is a trademark of the assessments of a vocal minority of football fans.
And if we're talking man-of-the-match, how can any objective, informed judgment of the game fail to include either Glen Johnson or Nadir Belhadj?
Johnson is now realising his early promise and has turned into surely the best right-back we've ever had.
As well as all his other skills, he has the confidence to shoot on sight (and largely accurately) and can cross (or indeed volley) the ball well with either foot.
Belhadj was absolutely spellbinding. I thought the confidence with which he took on opponents, the speed with which he chased back and the incisiveness with which he tackled marked him out as a truly top-class talent that Pompey would do well to secure on a permanent basis in January.
The fact that he demonstrated such an attitude and skill against one of
Those two seemed to be the pick of the bunch for most Pompey fans I've spoken to - certainly those who were there on Thursday - and the majority of contributors to the Fratton Faithful message boards.
It's funny how those who saw it on TV seemed to be swayed more by the arguments for Kanu. Was he singled out for praise in the coverage?
The good thing is, very few of the above opinions are wrong because that's what they are - opinions.
Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don't.
But the really good thing is that this is Pompey - we're arguing about which of our players was really man of the match in a scintillating performance against AC Milan - yes, AC Milan… in a genuinely competitive match.
Competitive? Oh yes. Just witness
They were relieved and ecstatic that they had managed to hold Portsmouth Football Club to a draw.
That's how far Pompey have come.
And no one can argue with that.