Venue - Gandhi, 39-41 Kingston Rd, Portsmouth
Attendees - Me, Malcolm, Harry.
It's been 7 months since the last Curry Blog, mainly because of our inability to make the play-offs and having to remain in this God forsaken division populated mainly by teams hundreds of miles away. Portsmouth, believe it or not, is one of our most local trips which presumably played some part in the wisdom of the Football League deciding to schedule this game for a Tuesday evening.
We had managed to set off at about 3:15 and had been pretty much the last vehicle through the A3 tunnel before it's closure caused havoc on the roads, a delayed kick off and an even longer journey on the way back. Luckily we did get through as otherwise we wouldn't have been able to make the curry at the Gandhi restaurant on Kingston Rd, approximately 2 miles from Fratton Park.
The Sat Nav decided to thread us through a council estate to get there mind, which looked as though it could have been interesting if the car had broken down! We were lucky to be able to park almost outside and made our way in at about 6:20, giving the restaurant about 40 minutes to serve us before we had to leave for the game.
The staff were incredibly accommodating; complimentary poppadoms and pickles beautifully presented, all home made (the mango chutney was fantastic, possibly the best I've tasted) and drinks on the table within 3 minutes of entering.
We had opted for simple dishes as we were in a rush, so there was a chicken tikka masala, chicken tikka madras and chicken jalfrezi as the main dishes, 2 pilau and one mushroom rice together with 2 onion bhajis (one portion).
Again, it was all home made and different from the usual indian restaurant fare, far less oily and full of flavour. If there was any negative comment then the madras and jalfrezi had no heat and were just above a korma in strength, certainly not what I would call hot.
We had a diet coke and 2 pints of cobra, which made the bill £51 including tip maybe fractionally high bearing in mind we only had one drink.
Marks -
Exterior - 8
Surroundings - 6
Interior - 8
Toilets - 8
Service - 9
Quality - 9
Value - 5
Overall - 7.57
The football
And so onto the game. We drove down to Fratton Park and managed to find some parking within a mile of the stadium but unfortunately on the wrong side for the away fans, so we had to walk all around the ground. On arrival we were informed that the kick off had been delayed by 15 mins due to an accident on the motorway (was this the reason for the tunnel closure maybe?). But what a brilliant old fashioned "proper" football ground Portsmouth have. The away end, aside from the seats, was almost unchanged from what the original terraces would have been with the concrete urinal walls in the toilets, fences and barbed wire everywhere and the whole place steeped in history, tradition and passion.
We met up with Dave and JB who had come down by train and were well oiled, so to speak. They had missed out on the curry but sated their appetite with a Pukka Pie from the stadium kiosk. None of us (except Harry) were overly optimistic as Pompey had just sacked their manager after 4 straight defeats and Southend had never won at Portsmouth in their history so the initial omens did not look good.
It looked even worse after 90 seconds when Portsmouth scored with a stinging shot from the edge of the box and despite plenty of possession, chances for Southend were at a premium. Manager Phil Brown made a substitution on the hour mark to try and change shape but that backfired within 5 minutes as the sub got sent off for elbowing an opponent so not only were we losing, we were down to 10 men.
The Southend fans however have recently found their voice and a tremendous visiting turnout of 773 for a Tuesday night were singing and chanting all game. It was relentless and the Portsmouth fans were quiet as incredibly the 10 men began to take a grip on the game. First came an equaliser and then a winner to send the visiting fans into raptures! The chorus of boos at the end spoke volumes.
We decided to avoid the tunnel on the way home and our journey was punctuated by a stop at a Harvester for a quickie before a drive along the coast towards Brighton and then up the A23/M23 before getting home just past 2 AM. Tough on a school night but made well worth it by the result and atmosphere. Oh, not forgetting the curry too!
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