In Their Own Words: Arjan De Zeeuw, Sylvain Distin, Svetoslav Todorov, Gary O'Neil, David Norris & Co on why Portsmouth's fans are among best around

But don’t take our word for it, let others explain how the Fratton faithful inspired their playing performances while representing the Blues...

I will never forget playing Arsenal at Fratton Park in the FA Cup in March 2004 and it wasn’t because we played really well! We got hammered 5-1.

The thing that stuck out from that game were our fans. We were losing 5-0 at one stage and they were singing, still behind us every step of the way, chanting ‘We’re going to win 6-5’.

Thierry Henry, who scored twice, turned to me and said: ‘Your fans are mad, they are brilliant, they keep on singing’.

Looking back, those days at Fratton were wonderful and as long as the fans know I appreciated them very much, that is the main thing.

As supporters go, there are not many I have met better than Pompey’s.

(Arjan De Zeeuw, Played Up Pompey, 2015)

Players can go through whole careers without winning anything or experiencing being part of a proper team, where colleagues battle for each other to the backdrop of magnificent supporters providing their backing.

The Bulgarian game does not attract a lot of fans – you can play in front of 4,000 crowds – so can you imagine the difference having the Fratton faithful on your side, providing you with that lift in the fight?

(Svetoslav Todorov, Played Up Pompey Too, 2017)

I loved my time as a Pompey player. In a 22-year professional career, it’s not often fans hold you in such high regard and it was something I treasured.

They even had a song for me and created T-shirts saying ‘Ain’t nobody like Ben Davies’! Hopefully, I was somebody they could relate to, a footballer they appreciated giving his all on a Saturday afternoon, working hard for their team.

I was a Pompey player for 12 months, I wish it could have been longer - it’s such a special club.

(Ben Davies, Played Up Pompey Three, 2020)

That was my first relegation, except it never felt like a relegation battle, and when it was sealed by a 2-1 home defeat to Derby County in the penultimate game, the supporters were unbelievable.

The players were instructed to go on a lap of appreciation, something we weren’t keen to participate in considering it hadn’t been a very good season, but the fans clapped and cheered when, in truth, we didn’t deserve anything.

Pompey fans are like that. To concede a goal and the supporters respond by singing is unheard of. I’ve played in teams drawing 0-0 at half-time and been booed off.

(David Norris, Played Up Pompey Too, 2020)

I know back in Pompey there’s a little group that used to call me ‘Scully’, well tell the Scully fans I’m wishing them all the best.

And tell the rest of them, I love them all to bits.

(Mick Kennedy, The News, March 2018)

The atmosphere was always amazing at Fratton Park, but the fact we were playing a club like AC Milan sent the fans crazy, with the Milan fans also very good. The whole place was really friendly and really enjoyable.

I can recall it wasn’t possible to hear anything between the players when speaking on the pitch, Fratton Park is a small stadium and the supporters are so close so when they are loud, it really is loud.

(Sylvain Distin, Played Up Pompey, 2015)

Even though I took loads of stick at Southampton, it’s not an intimidating place to play, but when Pompey get going it’s worth a goal.

Part of being a professional is handling performing in front of crowds and how you deal with it. Lots of top players who trained out of this world couldn’t translate it to the pressure of playing in big games.

Elland Road could be hostile, they made it difficult. Fratton Park was the same, they were able to batter the opposition - and I loved witnessing that.

(Darren Anderton, Played Up Pompey Three, 2020)

My Pompey debut was against Nottingham Forest at Fratton Park with a crowd of 18,910 – and I have never played in front of anything like that in my life.

I’ve turned out in a stadium with a crowd of 100,000, appeared in front of 40-50,000 week in, week out, but had never performed to anything like that before.