The Incredible Journey - Portsmouth

Has there ever been a script more magical than this? Take Portsmouth, a club who go from winning the FA Cup one season to no hopers. The manager who brought Cup glory, Harry Redknapp, leaves for a bigger club in Tottenham Hotspur, taking the best players with him. With little money and their star names having jumped ship for wider fame and glory, results start to tumble in the wrong direction and Pompey find themselves sitting bottom of the league. Couple that with a lack of investment and Portsmouth manager Avram Grant would be forgiven for taking a line from Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday, "We're in hell right now gentleman."

Buyers promise to come in and rescue the club but after deeper and more thorough review they realise not even their millions, or in some case billions, can save the club. They enter administration and become the first Premiership club ever to do so, aswell as receiving a nine point deduction. Relegation is now a dangerous and realistic possibility.

Player's wages are not paid and a large number of the club's off field staff are made redundent to clear funds for more imporatant matters. On loan players being paid from parent clubs have to pitch in and pay those players who aren't receiving their wages.

Then on a saturday afternoon in May, the club receive the news that no football fan wants to ever hear about his beloved side. Portsmouth are confirmed to be relgated. It is the end of the road. No longer will they eat at English football's top table. On that same day they have the FA Cup Semi Final, with onlookers saying they have no chance. Yet they prevail, with a shock 2-0 victory deep into extra time. It should be noted that victory came over the former manager Harry Redknapp. It should also be noted that the final deciding goal was scored by Kevin Prince Boateng, released by Tottenham to pave the way for some of Portsmouth's bigger names to head to White Hart Lane. It should be noted that the impossible dream is still alive.

It is said that Avram Grant will be writing a book about Portsmouth's incredible season. He may want to wait one more month as the Fa Cup Final against his old club Chelsea, from whom he was fired for failing to bring European glory, may just provide us with one of the best script endings in sports history.