Portsmouth reborn as supporters prepare for a different type of battle | David Conn

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After four traumatic years blighted by administration, disastrous ownership and plummeting through the divisions, Pompey are now owned by their fans, and ready to rise again

At Portsmouth's Fratton Park last Saturday, a golden sun shone on the vast car park and scrubs of derelict land to which so many far-flung speculators were drawn, tried and failed to make money, and left an old football club bust.

Formed in 1898, a date marked proudly all around the ground, Portsmouth have been salvaged from their barely believable series of owners and horrors to be majority-owned mutually and democratically by its supporters' trust. They must build again from League Two, having taken over a club still burdened with debts left by those buyers, and just three young players left for the manager Guy Whittingham. Yet at last Saturday's home match against Chesterfield, most of a remarkable 15,999 crowd seemed to be smiling, and Pompey felt like a club reborn.

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