GORDON SHARROCK previews tomorrow's clash with Portsmouth where Terry Venables is running the show TERRY Venables may not be at Burnden tomorrow but the Portsmouth team will bear the unmistakable hallmark of the former England boss.

El Tel is running the whole show at Pompey these days after being given control of the club by chairman Martin Gregory - and that includes making his mark on the team.

Terry Fenwick, appointed in February 1995, remains manager and is in charge of team affairs.

But any manager would be cutting off his nose to spite his face if he elected not to tap the wealth of experience and the brilliance of a coach with the credentials of his former Spurs boss.

Venners might have reached the heady heights of buying clubs instead of just buying players (he has an option to buy a 51 per cent holding in Portsmouth for a nominal price) but he is not ready yet to sever his links with team matters. So it's no surprise to learn that he's spent as much time on the training ground as he has in the boardroom.

A Fratton Park insider confirmed: "He's taken training sessions and has had a big influence on the park. Nominally he has only been here a month but the feeling is that he was liaising with Terry Fenwick before he actually took control.

"He's been referred to as 'director of football' but he isn't. He's been given control of the club and he is running the show."

The result of the Venables-Fenwick influence is that Pompey, with their three-centre-back formation are playing an attractive, pass-and-move game, which suggests tomorrow's encounter with Wanderers could be entertaining for fans and purists alike.

Nevertheless, El Tel's tracksuit persona doesn't always win the day. On Wednesday night, while Fenwick took his team to Swindon, where a hotly disputed goal earned them their second away win of the season, the business-suited Venables was in Turin offering TV viewers his expert analysis of Manchester United's Champions League clash with Juventus.

Portsmouth, on a four-match unbeaten league run, will run fitness checks on central defender Guy Butters, who missed the Swindon game, and midfielder Martin Allen, who has been out for some time, before finalising their line-up.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.