Stadium saga rolls on

If there's one word which strikes a nerve at Pompey, it's stadium.

In particular, a new one.

While The News' sportsdesk's reporting of the club's football team can cause arguments and the occasional snub, nothing provokes such blind panic as criticism of Pompey's plans for a new ground.

The club believe they should get zero negativity in their pursuit of a new home on Horsea Island (above).

Most people back it (certainly more than the previous unrealistic grandiose plan to plonk a 35,000-seater stadium next to the dockyard).

But the job of a newspaper is to report the facts and the full spectrum of opinion.

Local papers are not the club's newsletter and Pompey must realise this.

Reacting with an impetuous statement on their website every time something is written they don't agree with smacks of self-importance and some sort of Big Brother (George Orwell not Jade Goody) regime.

The worse thing, and the club know this, is fans buy it.

Blind faith is common in our tribal game - just listen to the cringeworthy 606.

The News website has been swamped with fans lambasting the paper. Unbelievable.

The same people who turn to us for breaking news on transfers and all things Pompey, suddenly now think we are bare-face liars.

Their contempt for the paper doesn't stop them hogging our messageboards.

We know we can't win because we are stuck between the fans and the club, both of whom want to be told everything's rosy all of the time.

It's not, of course (it has to be pointed out this is not the club's first stadium plan!). That's not real life, that's blind faith.

But then when did reality ever come into football.