Sully Gone

Sulley Muntari has joined Italian champions Inter Milan in a four-year deal.

The 23-year-old Ghana midfielder heads back to Italy after just one season with Pompey.

Blues boss Harry Redknapp bought Muntari from Udinese last summer and he made 33 appearances for the Blues, scoring five goals.

Pompey 1-2 Manchester United

Second-half goals by Chris Eagles and Carlos Tevez downed Pompey at the Abuja Stadium in Nigeria.

Jermain Defoe’s last-minute strike proved just a consolation for the Blues in the first game between two Premier League teams in west Africa.

The Blues needed David James in form to stop Manchester United winning the pre-season friendly by a more comfortable margin.

Pompey were without Kanu, Sol Campbell and Ben Sahar, who all suffered minor injuries in the 5-0 win over Kano Pillars, while Lassana Diarra also missed out with a knock.

Pompey’s 11 travelling fans were finally rewarded for their support when DEFOE cut inside and beat substitute keeper Ben Amos with a powerful shot in the 90th minute.

But Harry Redknapp’s side were unable to find an equaliser.

Pompey: James; Johnson, Pamarot (Primus 40), Distin, Hreidarsson (Traore 46); Utaka (Little 44), Diop (Mvuemba 66), Mendes (Davis 46), Kranjcar (Lauren 46); Defoe, Crouch

Manchester United: Kuszczak (Amos 76); Neville, Evans (O’Shea 66), Vidic, Silvestre; Gibson, Carrick (Cathcart 66), Scholes, Eagles (Cleverley 79); Tevez (Giggs 66), Campbell

Kano Pillars 0-5 Pompey

Peter Crouch scored twice as Pompey trounced Kano Pillars 5-0 at the Abuja Stadium.

John Utaka, Ben Sahar and Kanu added the others in a comfortable win over the Nigerian Premier League champions.

Pompey could have had plenty more with Pedro Mendes hitting the post and Jermain Defoe twice going close.

Pompey’s dominance was total and Mendes almost made it five, bending a shot against an upright, while Defoe and Kranjcar had efforts kept out.

And in the closing minutes Pompey’s fifth goal arrived when CROUCH volleyed home Cranie’s cross.

Pompey: Ashdown; Primus (Lauren 46), Campbell (Pamarot 46), Distin (Traore 46), Babayaro (Hreidarsson 46); Cranie, Davis (Mendes 46), Diop (Mvuemba 46), Utaka (Kranjcar 46); Sahar (Defoe 46), Kanu (Crouch 46)

Kano Pillars: Theophilius Afelo (Omoregie Uwigbe 60); Alhaji Mohammed, Balarabe Alaye, Bala Mohammed, Abdullahi Abubakar, Abdulwaisu Showemimo (Moses Ogago 60), Ahmed Garba (Sulisu Suleiman 60), Solomon Okpako (Munzali Yusuf 60), Hillary Chukwu (Aminu Tahir 64), Shagari Mohammed, Habibu Yunusa

Two Games In Two Days

Well Pompey have a busy couple of days in Africa.

The first is against Kano Pillars this Saturday. This is a bit about them.
Kano Pillars Football Club is a Nigerian football club based in Kano. They play in the top division in Nigerian football, the Nigerian Premier League. Their home stadium is Sani Abacha Stadium. Kano Pillars FC was founded in the year 1990, the year professional league was started in Nigeria. It was an amalgamation of three amateur clubs in Kano State which gave birth to Kano Pillars FC. The Clubs are WRECA FC, Kano Golden Stars, and Bank of the North FC.

Then the next will be against Manchester United on Sunday. Now a little bit of history.

The club was formed as Newton Heath L&YR F.C. in 1878 as the works team of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath. The club's shirts were green and gold halves. They played on a small, dilapidated field on North Road, near the future site of the Manchester Piccadilly railway station for fifteen years, before moving to Bank Street in the nearby town of Clayton in 1893. The club had entered the Football League the previous year and began to sever its links with the rail depot, becoming an independent company, appointing a club secretary and dropping the "L&YR" from their name to become simply Newton Heath F.C.. Not long afterwards, in 1902, the club neared bankruptcy, with debts of over £2,500. At one point, their Bank Street ground was even closed by the bailiffs.

Just before having to be shut down for good, the club received a sizeable investment from J. H. Davies, the managing director of Manchester Breweries. Legend goes that Harry Stafford, the club captain, was showing off his prized St. Bernard dog at a club fund-raiser, when Davies approached him to buy the dog. Stafford declined, but was able to persuade Davies to invest in the club and become club chairman. It was decided at one of the early board meetings that the club required a change of name to reflect the fresh start they had been afforded. Manchester Central and Manchester Celtic were among the names suggested, before Louis Rocca, a young immigrant from Italy, said "Gentlemen, why don't we call ourselves Manchester United?" The name stuck, and Manchester United officially came into existence on 26 April 1902. Davies also decided it would be appropriate to change the club's colours, abandoning the green and gold halves of Newton Heath, and picking red and white to be the colours of Manchester United.

So Pompey Make It To Africa Just!

From The Pompey Site

Pompey’s players had a dramatic arrival in Nigeria after their plane was forced to abort its landing in Abuja.

The Airbus 319 carrying the Pompey side and boss Harry Redknapp was just feet from touching down when the pilot abandoned the attempt.

To the shock of the 40-strong party on board – including England internationals Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Glen Johnson, Sol Campbell and David James - the private plane suddenly lurched back into the sky.

The Airbus then had to navigate around mountains in a lightning storm for more than half an hour.

The pilot told passengers he had been forced to abort the landing because he had not had clearance from the air traffic control tower.

Applause broke out from the players as the pilot finally made a perfect second landing at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.

Blues defender Linvoy Primus said: “It was a great flight and we were just above the runway when the pilot suddenly pulled the plane out of the landing and back up into the sky.

“We were all shocked. No-one knew what was happening. There had been no warning that there was a problem.

“But credit to the pilot who soon told us that he had been unable to establish contact with the tower and had decided not to land.

“After circling for half an hour in lightning he then managed to get us down safely at the second attempt.”

The flight had started routinely enough from Bournemouth Airport seven hours earlier, passing over the Sahara Desert before beginning its descent into Abuja.

After landing safely, Pompey’s players and staff were led single-file through the airport under armed guard.

They then boarded a coach for a police-escorted trip in a rainstorm to the club’s hotel in Abuja.

The Blues play two games in two days in Abuja: against Nigerian Premier League Champions Kano Pillars on Saturday and Manchester United on Sunday.

David Nugent and Marc Wilson, both nursing mild groin injuries, did not travel to Nigeria.

One and a half wins

Pompey beat AFC Bournemouth 4-1 with two goals from Crouch one from Defoe and one from Muntari.
In the other game Pompey drew with Dorchester Town 1-1 with an own goal from Benjamin Marsh-Brown.

Pompey Play Two Dorset Teams In One Night

Well Pompey and Pompey11 play on the same night and both teams will have a mixture of reserve and first teams, so it will interesting to see hoe it goes Play Up Pompeys.

A bit about the teams

AFC Bournemouth are an English football team currently playing in Football League Two. The side plays at the Fitness First Stadium (Dean Court) in Kings Park, Bournemouth, Dorset. The club has existed since 1899. Its nickname is The Cherries. The team traditionally plays in red and black stripes but reverted to predominantly red for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons before announcing a return to the stripes for the 2006-07 season due to fan demand.

The club was originally known as Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic, but adopted the AFC Bournemouth name in 1972. At the same time, it adopted the famous red and black striped shirt in imitation of the great Italian side AC Milan.


Dorchester Town were established in 1880, making them one of the oldest teams in the South West of England. They first played regular, competitive football in the Western League Second Division in the 1947–1948 season, spending three seasons there before winning promotion to the First Division. The First Division later became known simply as the 'Western Football League' with the dissolution of the Second Division. Dorchester won this league in 1954, but had to wait until 1972 to gain promotion to the Southern League. This was based upon gaining 'membership' of the league as opposed to actually finishing in a predetermined position.