Fratton Park, Portsmouth (Pompey)

Fratton Park is a football ground in the city of Portsmouth, England. It has been the only home of Portsmouth Football Club, who were founded on 5th April 1898.

Fratton Park, affectionately nicknamed "The Old Girl", is unique in English professional football, as it is the only professional football ground in England that is not on the mainland of Great Britain. This is because Fratton Park and the city of Portsmouth are located on Portsea Island, the third most populated island in the British Isles, and most densely populated city in the UK.

Fratton Park was built in early 1899 on a potato field in the farming village of Milton on Portsea Island. Fratton Park first opened to the public on Tuesday 15th August 1899, a public open day.

The first ever football match at the ground was on the afternoon of Wednesday 6th September 1899; a 2-0 friendly win against Southampton FC, and was attended by a crowd of 4,141 supporters.

Fratton Park is not named after the Fratton area of Portsmouth as the ground is still located in Milton. The ground was purposely named after Fratton railway station (the nearest railway station), which is located one mile to the west of Milton in neighbouring Fratton.

This peculiar naming of the football ground was made in 1899 to convince early Pompey supporters that the football ground's true location in Milton was within easy reach of trains and public transport, as the village of Milton had no railway station of its own.

Portsmouth FC are nicknamed Pompey, a name adopted from the city of Portsmouth and the historic naval base of HMNB Portsmouth.