Hardy(T)'s World Soccer Diary

18/1/97, Melbourne, Australia.
Optus World Series

 

Australia 1 New Zealand 0
At the Bob Jane Stadium, South Melbourne

And now for the moment the Australian soccer public had been waiting for. Terry Venables' first game in charge of the Socceroos, a 'local derby' against the old rivals from across the Tasman, New Zealand. As a Pompey fan, I had more than a vested interest, as Venables was also, at the time of the game, Pompey's Director of Football. So there I was in my Pompey shirt, surrounded by thousands of other fans in English, Greek, Italian and Croatian shirts, such is the ethic nature of Aussie soccer, loudly cheering the arrival of the new messiah.

 

Venables had obviously done a lot of work with his squad in his short time in charge. The Socceroos played some very attractive football - a trademark of any Venables side - and were also very dangerous going forward. Mind you, and no disrespect to nigel molesworth and chums, St Custard's Under-11's would probably look dangerous against New Zealand. Anyway, the Aussies duly went on to record a satisfying, if not spectacular 1-0 win to set Venables' side on on unbeaten run that would stretch another ten months.

 

Writing this article with hindsight, it was a bit of a false dawn for everyone. Australia, whilst remaining unbeaten in their qualifying games, ultimately failed to qualify for the World Cup, naïvely squandering a 2-0 lead in the final match v. Iran, in front of 90,000 fervent fans at the MCG, to go out on the away goals rule.

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As for Venables' association with my beloved Pompey, it breaks my heart to see what he did to the club. At first it was seen as the best thing that could ever happen to Pompey. Venables', the mastermind behing England's Euro 96 campaign, was coming to Fratton and surely investors' cash and top players would follow. As it turned out, he took the club for a ride, dragging our proud name through the mud with a series of dodgy deals that have led to his boardroom ban and his association with Eddie Ashby who ended up in jail. His committments to the Socceroos meant that Venables' was hardly ever at Fratton, leaving the hapless Terry Fenwick to run the side. It also meant that half the side, Australians whom Venables had presuaded to join Pompey, were away on international duty whenever selected by Venables! The club hit rock bottom over Christmas - the players wages were not payed, safety work on the new stand had to be stopped because of non-payment of bills and Venables and chairman Martin Gregory became embroiled in an ugly row over the ownership of 51% of Pompey's shares purportedly sold by Gregory to Venables.

 

Venables has now, thankfully, gone. Fenwick has gone too. Things are looking up...

 

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