October 4-10: Coach demand for Villa at 'cup-tie levels'
Monday 4: Ronald Bennett, the 21 year-old outside left signed from Wolves in August will continue to be unavailable for Pompey Reserves until the end of the year at the earliest. Bennett’s release from his national service with the RAF has been delayed.
Match Summary: Coventry City Reserves 0, Portsmouth Reserves 1
Tuesday 5: Early indications are that league-leaders Pompey will have thousands of supporters backing them at Aston Villa on Saturday. Coach companies in and around the city are reporting that demand for their vehicles has reached "cup-tie level".
Thursday 7: Portsmouth director Mr Sid Leverett has confirmed that permits have finally been obtained for repair work to Fratton Park. The first stage of the work is already underway and will take about two weeks.
The stairway leading from the turnstiles in the north-east corner of Fratton Park up to Spion Kop are being rebuilt to provide steps that have less of an incline than has previously been the case.
The top steps of the terracing at the Milton end are very uneven and broken away in places, so these are to be taken out and replaced.
The lateral gangway across the top of the Milton end terrace is to be built up so that it is level with the top step of the terracing. This will involve filling in the gangway with several tons of brick rubble and levelling it off with ashes.
The eastern edge of the Milton end’s lateral gangway will be protected by a small wall, mounted with a handrail to prevent people being pushed down the bank towards Fratton Park’s boundary with Specks Lane.
The repair work at Fratton Park will restore the ground capacity to about 52,000. Last week’s match against Newcastle United saw the gates closed behind a crowd of 45,827.
Friday 8: Portsmouth will once again be unchanged for their match against Aston Villa at Villa Park tomorrow (3pm). Pompey: Butler, Rookes, Ferrier, Scoular, Flewin, Dickinson, Harris, Barlow, Reid, Phillips, Froggatt.
Pompey Reserves take on Southend United Reserves in a Football Combination match at Fratton Park tomorrow (3pm). Pompey: Humpston, Hindmarsh, Drummond, Neave, McCoy, Thompson, Brown, Delapenha, Clarke, Elder, Parker
Saturday 9: Portsmouth failed to overcome struggling Aston Villa in the midlands this afternoon, but they came away with a point from a hard fought 1-1 draw to extend their unbeaten start to the season to 12 matches.
Thousands of rosette-wearing Pompey supporters descended on Villa Park and they roared their approval on the half hour mark when Reid had the ball in the net, but Froggatt’s cross was adjudged to have drifted out of play and the goal was disallowed
Portsmouth took the lead after 66 minutes. Phillips played a ball through to Reid, who shrugged aside two challenges before rounding the goalkeeper to slide the ball into the empty net.
Six minutes later Aston Villa were level. Mulraney picked up the ball just inside the penalty area and fired a blistering shot past Butler.
Pompey again went searching for the winner, but Harris missed a late chance to wrap up both points.
A Villa Park crowd of 57,649 watched this hard-fought encounter, and supporters of both teams will probably have gone home reasonably happy with the outcome.
With 12 matches played Portsmouth now lead Division One with 20 points, Derby County have 18, Birmingham City 16, Charlton Athletic and Sunderland 15.
Match Summary: Aston Villa 1, Portsmouth 1
Portsmouth Reserves pulled off a fine 3-0 victory over Southend United Reserves in the Football Combination's top-of-the-table clash at Fratton Park this afternoon. A crowd of 11,000 saw goals from Clarke (2) and Elder.
Match Summary: Portsmouth Reserves 3, Southend Reserves 0
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