17 May 2008 · Wembley · Portsmouth 1–0 Cardiff City
On a warm afternoon at the new Wembley, a Nwankwo Kanu goal gave Portsmouth the FA Cup — the club's first major trophy in 58 years, and, as it turned out, the last hurrah before the fall. This is how Harry Redknapp's side got there, and why that day still means so much on the South Coast.
By 2008, Portsmouth were an established Premier League club with money and stars — Sol Campbell, David James, Sulley Muntari, Jermain Defoe, Lassana Diarra and the veteran Kanu — but no silverware to show for it.
Harry Redknapp, in his second spell at Fratton Park, had steadied the club after promotion in 2003 and now had a squad good enough to go deep in a cup. What followed was an almost perfectly weighted run: a tricky start, a favourable home draw, and then the biggest test of all away at Old Trafford — cleared in a single afternoon.
Cardiff City, then a Championship side, arrived as underdogs but with nothing to lose. Portsmouth were the heavy favourites and played like it in the first half. On 37 minutes, a low shot was spilled by Cardiff keeper Peter Enckelman and Kanu was first to react, tapping into an open goal.
It was the only goal of a tense, cagey afternoon. Cardiff pressed after the break, but David James and a Portsmouth defence built around Sol Campbell held firm in front of a Wembley crowd of 89,874. When the whistle went, Pompey had their first FA Cup since 1939 and their first major trophy since the 1950 league title — 58 years earlier.
England's number one marshalled a run built on clean sheets, saving a fifth-round penalty at Preston and barely being beaten on the way to the trophy.
The former Arsenal and Spurs defender led the side out at Wembley and lifted the cup — the experienced spine of Redknapp's team.
The veteran striker scored in both the semi-final and the final, pouncing on 37 minutes at Wembley to win Portsmouth the FA Cup.
The 2008 FA Cup remains Portsmouth's most recent major trophy and took the club into Europe for the first time, a UEFA Cup campaign the following season. But the spending that built the team was unsustainable: within two years Pompey were in administration, relegated from the Premier League, and — in a cruel echo — back at Wembley for the 2010 FA Cup final, this time as strugglers who lost to Chelsea. The club would tumble to the fourth tier before climbing back. That makes 2008 more than a trophy: for a generation of supporters it is the day, the proof of how high Portsmouth once reached.
