ABSTRACT
Cliff Parker was the player who did most to bring the FA Cup to Portsmouth for a record period of six years. His double strike at the Wembley Final in 1939, against the hot favourites Wolverhampton Wanderers, helped Portsmouth to achieve a remarkable and unexpected victory, and the outbreak of the Second World War just months later did the rest, as Portsmouth held onto the Cup until the resumption of peace-time football in 1945. Portsmouth’s supporters, however, still regard Parker as ‘without doubt, one of their most famous wingers’,1
a man who served the club for nearly twenty years, both as a player and then as a scout. He was very much a terrace hero, ‘remembered . . . by many supporters with great fondness . . . he was a very popular figure among the team and players, supporters alike’.2
