It has been another fraught fortnight at Fratton Park. Manager Paul Hart’s side still languish at the bottom of the Premier League after another unfortunate loss, at home to Tottenham Hotspur.   Concerns were expressed about the possible reception for former Pompey manager Harry Redknapp, making his first return to Fratton Park after walking out on them twelve months ago when the money started to run out.   But the feared hostility was kept to a minimum as the crowd found some woeful finishing by their team occupying their mind.

Summer signing Aruna Dindane was guilty of the worst miss, blazing over an open goal from six yards when the game was still scoreless.

But the striker sounded determined to repay the fans when he spoke to pfcTV. He said: “Everything I do is for them – they feed you.

“I saw on Saturday that if I’m finding it difficult, the supporters will give me energy. That is very important.”

Behind the scenes, chief executive Peter Storrie, who has received recent plaudits for his apparent role in keeping Pompey financially afloat, has declared himself “astonished” that he is to be charged with “Cheating the Public Revenue” by HM Customs and Revenue (HMRC)

Storrie, along with Redknapp and former Pompey chairman Milan Mandaric, was arrested by City of London Police (COLP) in November 2007. He was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting.

A spokesperson for HMRC said this week: “We have notified his legal representatives that we have taken the decision that we will charge. Specific charges and dates will follow.”

These relate to a three-year COLP and HMRC investigation which has focused most of its attention on Portsmouth deals.

A statement on the club’s web-site noted that Storrie was “on honeymoon” when one particularly controversial transfer was concluded, although no transfer has been named by the charging authorities.

Storrie will, according to the statement, which does not quote him directly, “defend the allegations in the strongest possible terms,” emphasising that he “did not and could not have gained from any cheating of the public revenue given that…he had no propriety interest in Portsmouth.”

A further argument has been brewing over comments made by former owner Sulaiman Al-Fahim in an interview with an Arab newspaper.

Fahim is quoted as saying: “I own 100% of the club’s real estate assets.” The land is required for plans to redevelop Fratton Park, seen as vital to the club’s financial prospects, which have been famously grim for some time.

Fahim claims that he was seriously mistranslated (although the newspaper, Asharq-alawsat, is London-based) and that he “only has an option to buy” the land.

New owner Ali Al-Faraj, meanwhile, is reportedly taking legal advice on whether to suspend Al-Fahim as non-executive chairman over his claims that the new regime is favouring Israelis.

A “source close to” Al-Faraj is quoted in the Sun saying: “They allowed him to be chairman because he was in tears about losing the club, and this is how he repays them.”