The Great ‘Nigel Quashie’ Debate

By Chris Owens

I am going to be honest, if not somewhat controversial – I was really pleased when we signed Nigel Quashie from Nottingham Forest.

I always viewed him as a ‘Pompey type midfielder’, by this I mean combative, physical and a grafter, he went on to play for us for about 5 seasons and made 163 appearances, scoring 14 goals in all competitions.

Nigel’s big mistakes, in regards to Pompey, were in my opinion, the very obvious error of going down the road to join Mr Redknapp, and when he arrived there the comments that he made in regards to Pompey – do that Nigel and you will not be forgiven, and all your hard work and effort in our cause will quickly be placed in the bin in Frogmore Road.

I was at Bramall Lane when he made his debut as a substitute against the mighty Blades, I think the first choice midfield that day had such legends as Ceri Hughes (what happened to him), Tom Curtis, Thomas Thogersen and that creative genius that was and still is Sean Derry with Lee Badbuy (yes Badbuy) and Lee Mills up top, Tony Pulis had a lot to answer for Stoke fans, enjoy!

Nigel came on as a replacement and we went on to lose 2-0, his first full start was in the next game at Fratton Park against Grimsby, when he replaced the remarkably untalented Kevin Harper in the starting line up, not a difficult act to follow in my opinion.

We had to wait until Watford at Fratton to see Nigel smash in a long range effort to mark his first goal for us, however we went on to lose the game 3-1.

I remember seeing him score a goal against Norwich later that year that flew in from 25-30 yards and it seemed we had the new Hoddle or Zico, sadly I think that Nigel believed this himself, not a great idea, however I do recall another gem at Fratton against Wimbledon.

On the down side lets go back to Old Trafford, and its January 2003, Nigel is played in, and is one on one with Roy Carroll, here we go we are about to see a second goal for Pompey at ‘the Theatre of Dreams’, and he puts the ball into orbit and it lands somewhere near the Trafford Centre car park, mind you we got a hiding anyway, and United didn’t even get mad with us, thankfully.

He did suffer with injury, and in particular two bad knee injuries in the same season, and this really seemed to slow him down and take away some of his power and pace, and more importantly his self belief and confidence in his own ability. Quashie then ended up behind Smertin, Faye, Berger and Taylor, as first choice in the middle of the field.

Nigel was a powerful type of guy, who liked to put his foot in and be competitive, he always appeared to have a little bit of pace about him, he seemed to enjoy the responsibility of being team captain, which later was taken off him, and he became club captain, that made a difference to him I think.

He earned 14 caps for Scotland, not bad for a lad from Southwark, who already had England U-21 and B Team honours prior to 2004.

I always feel we had the best of him, and that when he left for down the road, then West Ham and West Brom amongst others he quickly ticked the box marked “journey-man”.

To me he was an intelligent type of player, who looked to change the direction of play, sit in the hole when he had to and was a decent passer of the ball.

He never lacked stamina, and always looked to put a shift in for the cause, but at the end of the day appeared to fall out of love with Portsmouth Football Club.

I did like Nigel, some of you may disagree and I respect your views and opinions, but to me in our Championship days he was outstanding and a major driving force behind our ultimate success, and he was, for the most part a decent midfielder in the Premiership, but one piece of advice Nigel, please think before you speak.