As 1971 dawned, Bertie Mee’s Arsenal, already locked in a neck-and-neck title race with Leeds United, faced a whole new set of challenges in the second half of the season, with the FA Cup beginning in earnest.
Few encounters were as pressurised as our fourth round game with Portsmouth, the first of which took place on January 23. Having knocked out Yeovil Town in the third round, we were presented with a tough draw away at Fratton Park against the Second Division side.
Although Pompey’s glory days in the late 1940s and early 1950s – when they won two First Division titles – were long gone, Fratton Park was packed to the rafters for the cup clash. 39,659 fans – most of whom were drenched by persistent rain on the open terraces – wedged into the old ground and made a real racket all afternoon.
Brief video highlights exist of the game, and show midfielder Peter Storey calmly slamming home a first-half penalty following a handball in the Pompey penalty area. More famously, Storey scored the equalising goal from the spot against Stoke City in that season’s FA Cup semi-final to keep our Double dream alive, but this conversion from 12 yards was ultimately no less important.
The hosts, with Everton’s 1966 FA Cup final winning hero Mike Trebilcock up front, bombarded us with long balls in the second half. “They were a tough old unit,” recalled John Radford. “It was on a mud bath of a pitch and physically, Portsmouth were as strong as anything we came across that season in the First Division. They could play a bit too.”
In the final minutes, as we clung onto our narrow lead, Radford conceded possession, and after an almighty scramble in the Arsenal goalmouth, Trebilcock fired home the late equaliser. The Pompey fans, many of whom were clad in old-fashioned yellow sou’westers to protect themselves from the elements, were delirious.
The Highbury replay, having initially been postponed due to more torrential rain, finally took place on February 1 in front of an impressive 47,865 crowd, and was another hard-fought encounter. Portsmouth took a shock sixth-minute lead through England under-23 international Norman Piper, before goals from Charlie George (making his first appearance since the first match of the season after breaking his ankle) and defender Peter Simpson put us 2-1 up at the interval.
George Ley once again pulled the visitors level, and with heavy tackles exchanged between the sides, the Gunners struggled to hold on. With the match set to go to a second replay, Pompey’s Eoin Hand scythed down Radford in the penalty area, and once again Storey – nicknamed ‘Cold Eyes’ by his opponents – slammed home the ball from the spot.
There was widespread relief inside the ground. “Portsmouth pushed us very hard in both games,” goalkeeper Bob Wilson recalled. ‘But sometimes you just have to find a way to win, and do whatever it takes. We were glad we’d avoided another fixture to add to the pile-up too.”
Manager Mee rightly emphasised the importance of the Gunners’ team ethic that season, but the individual coolness of Storey saw us into the next round of the competition as we took a step closer to ultimately lifting the famous trophy the following May. However, these two blood and thunder matches against Pompey quite literally saw our trophy-winning credentials put on the spot.
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