The 2007-08 campaign was certainly one to remember for those of a Portsmouth persuasion.
Under the management of Harry Redknapp and with players like Jermain Defoe, Glen Johnson, David James, Sulley Muntari and Niko Krancjar, Pompey finished a lofty eighth in the Premier League and also lifted the FA Cup for the second time in the club's history.
Such achievements were down to a string of impressive performances and results, both of which occurred during Portsmouth's trip to Newcastle United eight years ago today.
In truth, those travelling supporters that made the long trip to Tyneside will have done so more in hope than expectation. After all, not only had the Magpies not lost at home all season, St James' Park was a venue where Portsmouth had not won since 1949.
However, within the opening 11 minutes, Redknapp's men had ensured that the club's miserable run away at Newcastle would end in style.
There was eight minutes on the clock when a corner was cleared as far as Portsmouth defender Noe Pamarot, who rather than crossing the ball back into the danger zone, sent a shot flying beyond a helpless Steve Harper in the home goal.
The lead was then doubled less than 60 seconds later when Pompey frontman Benjani outmuscled Claudio Cacapa and then went on to curl in his eighth goal of the term.
To the amazement of all those present, Portsmouth were not finished there. Just moments later Nigerian attacker John Utaka sped away from the hapless Cacapa, before he rounded Harper to roll the ball into an unguarded net.
The hosts responded with a goal of their own in the 15th minute after James parried Michael Owen's shot into Sol Campbell's midriff, but quite simply, Sam Allardyce's charges had left themselves far too much work to do.
In fact, the final say on proceedings went the way of the visitors 19 minutes from time. Steven Taylor failed to deal with Krancjar's free kick adequately, which resulted in the ball skidding into the back of Harper's net for a fourth time.
Speaking after the final whistle, Allardyce said: "We lost the game in the shortest period of time ever, the first 12 minutes. When you go 1-0 down you make sure that you don't go two, and unfortunately through basic errors and the lack of defending situations correctly we've gifted Portsmouth two more goals.
"From there on, even though we had a spirited comeback and created some opportunities and made David James show what a good goalkeeper he is, it's too much too late."
A victorious Redknapp added: The system we play, we've got an extra man in the middle of the park and they were going to get outnumbered in there, so I felt it was important we passed the ball, make them chase our system and drag a wide man in. That was something we'd spoken about all week and we did it to perfection. Tgoals were absolutely fantastic goals."
Newcastle: Harper; Taylor, Faye, Cacapa (Rozehnal), Enrique; (Martins), N'Zogbia, Butt, Barton, Milner (Emre); Smith, Owen
Portsmouth: James; Pamarot, Distin, Campbell, Johnson; Davis, Muntari (Mendes), Diop, Utaka, Kranjcar; Benjani (Kanu)
Liam Apicella
