King Kanu Downs Baggies

This season has been another excellent step forward for Portsmouth football club and a further improvement over our excellent last season. It's a wonderful time to be a Pompey supporter, and today's FA cup win over West Bromwich Albion just further reiterates my stance that this is truly our season.

A 54th minute goal from Nwankwo Kanu against his former club was enough to see Portsmouth past a plucky West Brom side who threatened on more than one occasion, and can rightly be proud of the performance they put in against the FA Cup's only remaining top-flight resistance.

The Baggies had former shot-stopper Dean Kiely in goal, who had been critical of Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp since his departure from the club following the arrival of David James from Manchester City, but Kiely was unable to keep out Kanu's rebound tap-in following an excellent chest-down shot from Milan Baros forced Kiely into an excellent save.

The game proved to be a nervy affair for the final half hour, with West Brom consistently threatening, but it would be Pompey supporters who would leave Wembley with a smile on their face and a return trip in little more than a months time.

I can certainly feel sympathy for Baggies supporters, as they are a great lot - I (nor many of my fellow Portsmouth supporters) will soon forget the carnival atmosphere which accompanied the last game of the 2004-2005 season where Albion stayed up on the last day of the season against us at the expense of a certain stripey-club down the road. I certainly hope that there won't be any love lost between our two clubs!

What can not be doubted, however, is that we've certainly rode our luck in our run up to the final. Having played lacklustre against Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich and having relied on a last-gasp own-goal to see off Preston followed by a good deal of referring decisions in our favor at Old Trafford, I have not doubted that this is truly going to be our year. And having been on the back-heel for most of the first half against Albion, I'm going to be truly looking forward to the final.

But it's no more than we deserve, isn't it? Many of the older generation of Pompey fans still had thoughts of the heartbreak which accompanied the 1992 semi-final replay against Liverpool when traveling to Wembley today - the farthest we had made it in the cup in more than sixty years. And those Portsmouth supporters who were there on that day will remind you of the poor fortune that we faced in that particular replay, and how it had been following us in the competition ever since.

Not any longer.

With all of this said, however, I believe the quality we now have in the squad is telling; being able to bring such good (and experienced) players as Pedro Mendes, Lauren, and Sean Davis off of the bench while already having such excellent players in Lassana Diara, Sulley Muntari, and Sylvain Distin have made the difference in the improvement of our season over last. We have the players to finally nick a result even when we're not playing at our particular best.

Today's semi-final proved that, as has many of the games we've played in the competition and in the league this season

Not bad for a "small club," eh? And how will Portsmouth fair against the next round of Championship resistance?

Watch this space.