POMPEY fan Julian Browning swapped the club’s boozy corporate hospitality lounge to answer an SOS and take over as emergency LINESMAN.
Browning borrowed kit, including GOLD boots, to take a flag after fourth official Stephen Brown — who had already replaced one crocked linesman — limped off.
Cheltenham boss Wade Elliott hailed local league ref Browning as “the best official we’ve had all year”, adding: “They should all have a curry and four pints before coming on.”
The game was in danger of being abandoned when ref Ben Toner took the players off the pitch while an appeal for a stand-in bellowed out from the Portsmouth PA system.
Browning revealed: “I’ve not been on the turf at Fratton Park since I was an 11-year-old playing in a schools cup final in 1978.
“I am a massive Pompey fan, have been for 50 years. I’ve been a season-ticket holder forever.
“I got some kit from the second assistant ref and another official appeared in the changing room with a spare pair of gold boots.
“If you’re going to make your presence felt you might as well wear gold boots, hey?
“We had been wondering what was going on. Everyone who sits around me knows I am a local referee, not a brilliant standard.
“I was a bit unsure at first. They made a second call and I thought, ‘Oh, what the hell?’.
“The adrenalin kicked in and I was c**pping myself.
“I was worried about two things, one, if a contentious decision happened but also if Pompey scored, how was I going to react?
“I asked the referee, ‘What do I do if we score?’ ”
Fortunately, that did not arise as the game ended goalless following 21 MINUTES of added time because of the lino chaos.
It was Cheltenham’s first point of the season and Elliott joked: “I did worry when he walked on and gave the Messiah salute to the North Stand but it’s one of those things.
“The players dealt with it really well. It would have been easy to have lost focus.”
Portsmouth manager John Mousinho praised the visitors for allowing the game to continue despite Browning being a Pompey fan.
Mousinho said: “There was a chance the game could be called off because nobody knew the affiliation of the fan who took over.
“I was happy because he came down from our South Stand, so fair play to Cheltenham because they could have refused to play on.”
The match resumed in the 55th minute, with Browning loudly applauded as he raised his flag for a throw-in moments later.
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Pompey midfielder Joe Morrell added: “We were in the dark about whether the game was going to go ahead.
“But someone who’d had five pints in hospitality stepped up.
“There were questions being asked. If you’re their manager, you’d be worried about pulling a Pompey fan from the crowd. But 0-0 is a fantastic result for them.”
