All images © Simon Roe
| Over 2,200 attended the
Stewart Vaughan benefit match to pay tribute to Stewart. Stewart was
able to play for a few minutes at the start of the game, having made an
emotional entrance to the ground through a swathe of children from
Brockham Badgers FC, St Martins FC and Dorking Girls, who had formed a
guard of honour for the teams, and Stewart in particular. Portsmouth were wonderful in all respects - in the build up to the game, in the team they put out and in the way they treated the game with a seriousness unusually seen in friendlies of this nature. At least 12 first team players for Pompey played a full part in the game, with the likes of England international Glen Johnson playing for all 90 minutes of the match. Harry Redknapp turned up for the match, as did stars Sol Campbell, Kanu and Andy Cole, to add their support to Stewart and sign hundreds of autographs without complaint. Great efforts had been made to get the game played, with volunteers working really hard to get the game on. Even then, torrential rain on the day led to a heavy, very muddy and wet surface, and again all credit to Pompey and their players for going ahead with the fixture. The game was a competitive affair, although both sides had agreed the game should be played with minimal contact due to the conditions. This produced a fast flowing game, made more exciting by the unpredicatable nature of the pitch due to the conditions. Dorking had their chances, but against such an array of premiership superstars, inlcuding LuaLua, Benjani, Matt Taylor, O'Brien, Richard Taylor, Todorov, Douala, Stefanofic and others, Dorking were unable to make too much of an impact. Portsmouth produced some great attacking football and led 5-0 at the interval. Goals from Todorov (3), LuaLua, Benjani, Matt Taylor and Douala gave Pompey a 7-0 win. Dorking - Mark Fox, Stewart Vaughan, Ricki Lunn , James Earp, Charlie West , Johnny Tyler, Kevin Terry, Stuart Padgett, Craig Duffell, Danial Kent , Joe Loyza. Subs - Subs , Danny Smith , Dan Dunning, Billy Ramsey, Adrian Butler, Steve Lunn, Kevin Burgess, Steve Coyle, Karl Evens, Chris Jolley, Jason Baron, Kieron Phillpott, Dean Milton , Tom Duke Portsmouth - Begovic, Johnson, Taylor, (Fordyce), O'Brien, Stefanovic, Mvuemba, Hughes (Harris), Douala, Kranjcar, LuaLua (Berlin), Todorov More photos can be found courtesy of
Simon Roe at Many thanks to Simon for allowing us to reproduce some of his photos here. |
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