Portsmouth do Harry proud against moaning O'Neill

Clearly, some of it has stuck. His reaction at the final whistle to the baiting of Aston Villa's supporters, upset at seeing Pompey win their first top-flight fixture at Villa Park since Boxing Day 1955, demonstrated the fire within is still raging.

Redknapp held a running verbal battle in the second half with fans behind the visitors' dugout as his team raced into a three-goal lead, courtesy of an own goal from Craig Gardner and two magnificent long-range Sulley Muntari efforts to chalk up an incredible sixth win on the road.

Yet Redknapp was still spitting mad at the final whistle, both with Villa's fans and the authorities following the events of 12 days ago.

Although he was clearly concerned with a personal agenda, he did raise a far more general point about the conduct of football supporters. Asked whether this triumph was a release for him, given the circumstances, he said: "Yeah, of course.

I'm still uptight about what's gone on because it's been a disgrace what's happened to me, a disgrace. 'I'm disgusted the way I've been treated, I really am. I'm taking it all the way. For sure, I'm not laying back. No way am I going to stand back and let what's happened to me happen. Not a chance. I will take it all the way, don't worry."

Whether that means taking legal counsel or making a formal complaint to the relevant authorities remains unclear. But while chants such as: 'Redknapp's paid the ref," were amusing, some of the others were less so.

His comments about the Villa fans — generally more fair-minded than many, it has to be said — brought into question the conduct of supporters throughout the country.

He said: "You have people standing behind you at matches who have brought their kids with them and they are shouting filth.

"I didn't see that when I went with my dad to Arsenal, standing with the away fans having a cup of tea. None of this filth and nonsense. Maybe I shouldn't get upset when I see that. But I do. I didn't bring up my family to behave like that and I don't expect other people to behave like that.

"What upsets me is when I see them standing next to a little boy, making filthy gestures. They can stand there and say what they like to me. That's what I can't stand. It stinks and they should be ashamed of themselves as parents. I never swore in front of my kids in my life.

"It turns me over when I see people doing stuff like that. They were losing, they can't take it and it's a nonsense.

"We have it everywhere. The other week at Chelsea a guy, who had a six-year-old boy with him, ran 40 yards up to our coach and dropped his pants and his trousers and bent over in front over the coach. And you have to stand and take all that. It's scary the way some people behave."

Villa spokesman Phil Mepham said any complaint to the club will be investigated. He added: 'There are stewards behind the dugout area and they are trained in all types of security. We would need to see the degree of the complaint before we could go any further.

"As a club we would say that this does not reflect the general behaviour of our supporters, who have a good reputation.What has been said went on does not reflect what we are trying to do at this club."

Portsmouth's Sylvain Distin, part of a trio with Sol Campbell and David James that Redknapp declared he would not swap for any other in the Premier League, said:

"I didn't see what happened with the fans. But what has been going on with Harry has not affected the atmosphere or anything in the team.

"We know how some people try to break some teams, or some players or some coach, when they succeed. I think we are doing well and maybe some people don't like it.

"When all this happened we had a meeting and Harry made everything clear. It lasted for only two or three minutes and then we went back to training. There has been no change in him, no change at all.'

As for Villa, manager Martin O'Neill cannot quite seem to get it right. Four successive victories have been followed by two defeats.

They had the opportunities to change the outcome. Two poor headers from Martin Laursen and an instinctive, point-blank save by David James from Gabriel Agbonlahor meant that Muntari's superb second on the hour effectively killed off the game, even though Gareth Barry scored from the penalty spot after a trip in the area.

"I'm disappointed," said O'Neill. "We were knocked back by a fluke of a goal. It was heading towards the corner flag. The second is a wonder goal. You can talk about us getting closer to him, but that's taking nothing away from him. We had our chances and had we taken them it would have been a different story.

"David James made a great save on half-time. That was probably the turning point because at two down the next goal was going to decide it. But they are a strong side and have to be given credit."