Av' it!

Sorry to go on about football again – but if, like me, you’re a Pompey fan, there hasn’t been a great deal to shout about this season.

Reaching the FA Cup semi-final is a hell of an achievement for a club in our situation. But what may mean more to the club in the long-term is the attitude and mentality of the players and manager.

Harry Redknapp may have won us promotion and an FA Cup, but he never truly ‘got’ what it is to be Pompey. In his few months at the club, Avram Grant certainly has.

In last week’s Observer, one Pompey fan, Mick Dunford, said Grant was already more popular than Redknapp had been even in his pomp.

Several people of my acquaintance scoffed at that statement – but they may have to eat their words now. Grant is achieving Alan Ball-like status among the supporters – and that’s saying something.

Ballie was a God. He knew about the lifeblood of the club – he understood what it meant to have an island mentality (remember Pompey are the only professional football club in England based on an island).

That ‘siege mentality’ – call it what you will – is back – and Avram Grant, gets it, believes in it and has bought into it. And it seems he has instilled it in his players.

Even if we go out of the FA Cup at the next stage and get relegated, it is that inherent spirit which will keep the club alive in the Championship and beyond – wherever that might be.

And for that reason alone Avram Grant can hold his head higher than Redknapp ever could…