The third game of a four-day-four-matches-tour in 2009. I arrived to Stoke by train around noon from Nottingham via Derby and checked in at the old Britannia Hotel across the street from the train station. After checking in, I went out to get me a Sunday lunch. Several pubs that I remembered from my first visit to Stoke six years earlier had closed. After a while, I found one that looked nice where I could have a couple of pints and a Sunday roast. There was a group sitting there who was going to the game and one of them told me that they had come up from London to do a Port Vale-Stoke-double since Port Vale had had a home game on Saturday. There seems to be some decent Stoke City supporters and he was one of them. At the stadium, I had one next to me that was his opposite, at least while the game was going on. 

We left the pub together to walk to Glebe Street and catch one of the stadium buses from there. Pompey had only collected 7 points from their 12 first games and were bottom of the PL while Stoke had 16 points in mid-table. Rory Delap completely miskicked in his own penalty area and hit the head of Pompey's Aruna Dindane. It was about as clear as a penalty can get, but still there was plenty of moaning from the stands. Kevin-Prince Boateng's spot-kick was poor and quite easily saved by Thomas Sörensen. It looked like it would be a goalless draw, but with a quarter to go Ricardo Fuller scored the only goal of the match for the home team. 

When I had visited Britannia Stadium in 2003, it was my 14th league ground.