POMPEY ARE BACK ON AN EVEN KEEL
Club that once faced oblivion host Arsenal tonight in an FA Cup tie to stir the passions of a proud fanbase. Sportsmail goes behind the scenes in their big week. . .
The MAN known as Big Kev ducks and weaves his superheavyweight frame through the tight twisting corridors to Portsmouth’s inner sanctum.
Mind your head. Watch that step. Life amidships is recreated in this windowless world with blue-andwhite walls in the heart of a famous naval city.
Little has changed since Milan rolled up in the UeFA Cup, puzzled by the idiosyncrasies of Fratton Park and disturbed by the raucous din shivering the timbers of the wooden stands above.
The Italians assumed it was Pompey’s training ground when they went through their paces under the lights on the eve of the match and they departed, after Ronaldinho had come off the bench to salvage a late draw against the FA Cup holders, querying the size of the crowd, certain there must have been more than 20,000 inside.
Five hours before kick-off against Milton Keynes Dons in League
One, the air is still and the mood is calm. The kit is freshly laundered and the dressing room is primed for Kenny Jackett and his players.
This is the first of three games in seven days which will culminate tonight in the FA Cup against Arsenal, a fifth-round tie evoking memories of their eight years in the Premier League.
Big Kev takes a sachet of isotonic energy gel, examines it and tosses it back into its box with a shake of his head. ‘I mean, when did that ever help anybody score a goal?’
Little has changed and yet everything has changed. And Kevin McCormack, a former Royal Marine and ABA boxing champion, has seen it all in more than 20 years as the Pompey kit man.
There was a decade of breathless success and a parade of worldclass stars through the club when his job included lighting half-time cigarettes for Robert Prosinecki and providing Peter Crouch with a furniture delivery service.
Crouch, he pauses to explain, had bought an expensive sofa only to find it was too big to negotiate the spiral staircase to his penthouse flat in Port Solent. So he summoned Big Kev, who organised a long ladder, hoisted one arm of the sofa on to his head, ran the length of it down his back, secured it around his waist with a rope, scaled the ladder against an outside wall of the flats and threw it over the balcony.
When you have earned your green beret and carried the Wales flag into a Commonwealth Games, such piffling problems cause no stress.
Big Kev does dispute the details of a story told by Crouch, who once claimed on his podcast that he paid the kit man £60 a week to wash his kit, in the days when
Portsmouth’s players were expected to wash their own. ‘More like £15,’ says Big Kev.
he rolls his eyes. ‘And he hardly ever paid it. I just did it. The more they earn the tighter they get.’ he laughs. True words spoken in jest, most probably. ‘They’re good lads. Like ships in the night most of them, but while they’re here let’s make it as much fun as we can.’
Along with the fun came acts of friendship and kindness. Avram Grant gave him his FA Cup medal from the final in 2010 and David James came to find him one day when Pompey were deep in one of their financial crises and not paying their staff. ‘he asked who was in my team and how much they were missing, and next day he brought in three or four grand and said, “There you go, make sure they’re paid”.’
Pompey’s crash was as spectacular as the climb. From the Premier League in 2010 to League Two in 2013, in and out of administration, with points deducted, they became a warning against reckless spending.
‘The saddest part was the people losing their jobs,’ Big Kev says. ‘I had to let two people go and they didn’t do anything wrong. They weren’t crooks. They were only good, hard-working people with mortgages to pay. That’s what breaks my heart.’
Unscrupulous owners and executives came and went and the suffering went on. The club was perilously close to winding up before the Supporters’ Trust won its struggle for control. A year later, they were 90th of the 92 league clubs and staring at the prospect of relegation from the Football League.
MARK CATLIN is a beaming chief executive, sweeping down the tun