Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
POMPEY CLIMBS
Celebrating Seasiders are brought back down to earth by Pitman and Close
A DREAM came true for Pompey fan Ben Close as he helped ruin Blackpool supporters’ party.
The Bloomfield Road faithful received the news they had been longing to hear last week, when the hated Oystons confirmed the club was up for sale. Owner Owen Oyston and son Karl are public enemies one and two on the Golden Mile for asset stripping the club over the past seven years.
That’s the accusation levelled at them for the club’s slide from the Premier League to League Two – and has now been officially confirmed by the High Court.
However, barely 5,000 fans turned up to witness this five-goal thriller – and around 1,700 of them were cheering on Pompey.
The away fans, whose own club was nearly wrecked by dodgy owners, before becoming supporter-ran, saw Brett Pitman score twice – including an 86th-minute winner – with Close’s debut strike in between.
Midfielder Close (right), 21, was born in the naval town and had been waiting all his life to score for them.
He said: “It was a relief to score my first Pompey goal. I dreamed about it, even before I joined the club. It was great seeing faces in the crowd that I know when I celebrated.
“When the ball hit the back of the net, I can’t really remember what I felt. It’s such a big thing for me and I’ll be watching the goal back a few times.
“I supported this club as a kid and when I’ve dreamt about my first goal, it’s been at the Fratton End, but I’ll take anything!”
The Seasiders equalised twice, first through Viv Solomonotabor and again through an Oliver Hawkins own goal.
But Pitman had the last word from close-range after Christian Burgess set him up.
Gary Bowyer took Blackpool back into League One last season but the manager was annoyed at the way his players had failed to protect goalkeeper Ryan Allsop when it mattered.
He said: “We gave it away cheaply. The manner of the goals was not acceptable. We’ve done a lot of work on set plays, so it’s disappointing. They were poor goals.”
Premier
League referee
Jon Moss took charge after Ben Toner, the original choice, was moved to another game as fans joked his name sounded like “bent owner”.