Portsmouth FC are currently enjoying only their second sustained period at the top of English football, after promotion to the Premier League in 2003.

With one exception, the 1987-88 season, Pompey have struggled to make a football impact at the highest level since their longest run between 1927 and 1959.

It was Portsmouth Football Club manager Harry Redknapp who steered the top flight's most southerly team back to the pinnacle, where they have remained since, surviving a serious relegation threat in the 2005-06 campaign.

The recent turnaround in Portsmouth FC's fortunes came with the football club's ownership by millionaires Milan Mandaric and subsequently Alexandre Gaydamak, both of whom invested heavily to improve the squad, which brought stability to Pompey and helped achieve the goal of UEFA Cup football in 2007-08. Pompey also won the FA Cup in 2008 for the first time since 1939, beating Cardiff City 1-0.

Portsmouth Football Club, founded in 1898, first played in the Football League in the 1920-21 season and reached Division One by 1927.

Pompey qualified for their first FA Cup final in 1929. They lost out again in 1934, but Portsmouth FC lifted the trophy for the first time in 1939, beating favourites Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-1.

League success eventually came, under manager Bob Jackson, when Portsmouth FC became one of only five football clubs since the Second World War to win consecutive Division One titles, in 1949 and 1950.

A relatively anonymous spell followed and by the mid-1970s, Portsmouth FC had plunged into the Third Division and despair, with the cash-strapped football club having to be thrown a £25,000 lifeline from supporters in order to stave off bankruptcy.

League obscurity was lifted by a one-season stay in Division One, in 1987-88, and it was only by scoring one fewer goal than West Ham United that Portsmouth FC, with Jim Smith at the helm, missed out on claiming a place in the inaugural Premier League football season in 1992.

Eleven years later Redknapp brought the ultimate reward for Mandaric's investment, winning Division One to take Portsmouth FC back into the top football flight.