page_title: Fratton Park
section_title: The Milton End
hierarchical_section_title: Fratton Park / Fratton Park Stands / The Milton End
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking north along Specks lane which runs along the back of the Milton End grandstand at Fratton Park the home of Portsmouth Football Club (nickname Pompey). Pompey boasts the most honours of any football club south of London, most notably Football League Champions in 1948-49 and 1949-50, and F.A.Cup Winners in 1939 and 2008. The football club is in the city of Portsmouth in the English county of Hampshire in England.
context_page_description: Fratton Park is an association football ground in the English port city of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom. It is the original home of Portsmouth F.C., who were founded on 5 April 1898.
  Uniquely, the stadium is the only one in English professional football that is not on the mainland island of Great Britain, as it is built on Portsea Island, where the city of Portsmouth is located.
  The ground was built in 1899 on the site of a potato field in Milton, a Portsea Island farming village which later became a residential district of Portsmouth, as the city expanded across the island during the twentieth century.
  Fratton Park was first opened on a public open day on Tuesday 15 August 1899. The first ever football match at the ground took place on Wednesday 6 September 1899; a 2-0 friendly win against Southampton FC, attended by 4,141 supporters.
  Fratton Park is named after Fratton railway station, which is one mile west of Milton in the neighbouring Fratton area. This peculiar naming was chosen to persuade fans that the football ground's true location in Milton was within easy walking distance and reach of public transport, as Milton had no railway station of its own.
context_section_description: Current capacity: 2,800 (all seated, reduced from 3,200)
  At the eastern end of Fratton Park is the 'Milton End'. When Fratton Park first opened on 15 August 1899, no stands or terracing existed yet at the Milton and Fratton ends. Instead, a thousand supporters could sit in relative comfort in the roofed Grand Stand on the south side of the pitch, or stand on the banked open air North Terrace on the north side. Alternatively, supporters could also stand on flat open ground behind the two opposite goal lines at each 'end'.
  In 1905, the sight lines for supporters at the east end of Fratton Park were improved by the construction of an open air solid earthbank terrace, covered with wooden plank steps over layers of cinders and compacted top soil.  The new east end terrace initially became known as the Spion Kop, a colloquial British nickname for an open air earthbank terrace that resembled Spion Kop hill near Ladysmith, South Africa, a 1900 battle location during the Second Boer War.  The Spion Kop was joined to the North Terrace's eastern end with a connecting corner terrace, known as 'The Milton Corner' which later became known as 'The Boilermakers Hump'.
  In 1928 the Spion Kop (Milton End) was reprofiled with concrete terracing, bringing the capacity of Fratton Park up to 40,000.
  During October 1948, repairs to the uneven broken rear gangway of the Spion Kop took place to make it safe, using brick rubble surfaced with a top layer of ashes.  A new perimeter wall with a handrail was also built at the top of the stand to stop supporters falling from the top into the Specks Lane alleyway below. A new stairwell leading up from the northeast corner turnstiles behind the Boilermakers Hump, was built, with a shallower incline than its predecessor.
  In 1949 the height of the Spion Kop was raised to the same level as the north-east corner (Milton Corner or Boilermakers Hump), with its terraces fully resurfaced with concrete.
  In 1974, Fratton Park became the first football stadium in England to dig "moats" between the pitch and the stands to prevent supporters invading the pitch. The "moats" were a recommendation by the then Minister of Sport and Recreation, Denis Howell.  The "moats" were deep trenches with thick concrete walls, dug behind both goals at the Milton End and Fratton End stands. The term "moat" is a little misleading, as they were not designed to be filled with water.
  During 1983, when pitch invasions by supporters were commonplace, perimeter fences were built around the entire Fratton Park pitch.
  On 12 March 1983, during Portsmouth's promotion chase to Division One, visiting rival Cardiff City fans - also chasing promotion - climbed the large scoreboard at the back of the Milton End terrace and stole the hands from the Milton End clock. Portsmouth eventually won the Division Two championship, with Cardiff City finishing as runners-up.
  Following the 15 April 1989 Hillsborough Disaster, Portsmouth F.C. removed the perimeter fences from Fratton Park for the 1989–90 season, except at the Milton End to separate away supporters, although these too were removed for the following 1990–91 season after the Taylor Report was published in January 1990. However. the Milton End moat and wall have been retained to present day, with additional emergency exits retrofitted in.
  In the summer of 1996, Fratton Park became an all-seater stadium. The Milton End terrace was reprofiled and blue plastic seats were installed.
  During the late 20th and early 21st centuries, various television companies erected a series of temporary elevated miniature television studio boxes on scaffold pylons at the centre rear section of the Milton End where the scoreboard and stadium clock had previously been. This continued up until 2007 when the Milton End received a roof for the first time, which also prevented the continued use of temporary studio boxes on the Milton End.
  In 2007, a roof was added over the Milton End following complaints to the Premier League by 'Away' supporters not accustomed to being exposed to rain. The Milton End, between the 2003-2004 an
caption: Specks Lane behind the Milton Lane.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SX400 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2017:01:16 17:48:30", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "246", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "6512", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "19444", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5083", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/50", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "250", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity and Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:01:16 17:48:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:01:16 17:48:30", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "181/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "149/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "149/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "8119/500", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4608", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3456", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "4608", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "3456", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "6402", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2304000/121", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1728000/91", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": ""}