I am Pompey born and bred - of which I've make no secret. I also love watching football - which is why I'm a City ST holder. I just want to comment on what happened to the Barnsley 'Jack' McBurnie yesterday - neither I, nor the folk around me knew he was a Jack at first, by the way.

Where I come from the rivalry between Pompey and the Saints makes the City/Jacks thing look like a small pub skirmish. Yet when I lived in Portsmouth, I would watch Pompey one week and Saints the next - I went to see the great football of Paine and Sydenham and Davies and Chivers et al.

McBurnie let himself get a bit wound up by the chants yesterday - and then he scored. I loved his dance and gestures towards the fans who had reviled him. I laughed out loud. Good for you son - best way to answer the baying mob. He couldn't contain himself and what came out was spontaneous and unstudied.

For those who want to pile in now, let me add this. My daughter now lives in Southampton. A grand-daughter was born there. As a Pompey man, should I cast them off? Rivalry I understand - and it makes for great theatre - but surely it should be tempered by sweet reason.



(PS Isn't it against FIFA laws for footballers to play without shin-guards as McBurnie appeared to do? Filthy Jack caravan-dwelling SCUM!)