PAUL’S READY TO COOK UP PROMOTION CHARGE AGAIN
FOR Portsmouth, the wait goes on. Eight years after winning the FA Cup and six since relegation from the Premier League, the long climb back to respectability remains rooted at base camp.
Yet if defeat to Plymouth in the play-off semis proved a deflating conclusion to a season that saw Pompey briefly top the table, the previous ten months offered plenty of hope that the dark times will soon be over.
Ten weeks in the top three. The second-best defence in the division. Attractive, passing football and thumping victories over the likes of Hartlepool and York.
For the first time since 2008, when Harry Redknapp’s side came eighth in the top-flight, Portsmouth have improved on the previous season’s finish. Momentum has shifted.
For that, much credit must go to manager Paul Cook, who was lured from Chesterfield last May.
The 49-year-old scouser spent a frenzied first summer overhauling the squad that finished 16th, ditching 14 players and signing 19 more.
Premier League rejects like Enda Stevens were blended with experienced campaigners like Gary Roberts and Michael Doyle, neither likely to be fazed by the din and demands of Fratton Park.
But for injuries to key players and an over-reliance on loanees – Pompey’s form dipped when striker Caolan Lavery returned to parent club Sheffield Wednesday – Cook’s men might have finished the job. It is a mistake he won’t make again.
“I’m a great believer that one game doesn’t decide your fate,” he said. “The reason we didn’t go up wasn’t because we lost to Plymouth.
“It’s because we weren’t good enough over the course of a season.We weren’t strong enough to last the course and we were on our knees by the playoffs.
“That’s why we don’t want to be loaning players next season. We want our own, with pride in wearing that jersey.
“We’ve put a squad together that for 75-80 per cent of this season has represented us really well. I want to be standing here next season saying that it’s more like 95 per cent.”
Cook’s stated ambition to stay at the club “for years and years” is fully supported by chairman Iain McInnes and owners the Pompey Supporters Trust. Another summer of recruitment has already begun, with bids lodged for six players.
“I think our supporters can have belief in us,” said Cook, who knows that expectation – so long dulled–- will now rocket through Fratton Park’s rickety tin roof.
“I’ve said for a long time now that this club is going in the right direction.
“The support we had against Plymouth was incredible.We even had people waiting after the game to clap us onto the bus.
“We’ll do our best to get there for them next year, and not through the play-offs. I haven’t come here to have five or ten year plans. I want promotion now.”
With hope rekindled by this year’s near miss and a summer to build on pretty firm foundations, it is unlikely anything less will be tolerated.