If we are going into this season's F.A. Cup Final as underdogs based on the fact that we are a mid-table Championship side while Portsmouth are in the top half of the Premiership, it would be well to look back several decades at what happened near the end of 1948/49.

We, as a Second Division club, had got as far as the Fifth Round, losing to First Division Derby County, while Portsmouth were on course for a League Championship and F.A. Cup double. Pompey, in their fiftieth year of existence, became outstanding Champions that season, and when they reached the semi-final of the F.A. Cup, after beating Derby in the quarter-final, they faced Leicester City who were battling against relegation from Division Two.

In a sensational result at Highbury, Arsenal's former ground, Portsmouth were beaten by Leicester who went on to lose to Wolves in the Final. In that Portsmouth side was wing-half Jimmy Scoular who went on to manage Cardiff City from 1964 to 1973.