United undone by Harry's Pompey magic

In a modern age of antiseptic stadia, negative football and risible PR hype, Redknapp represents a throwback to a time when football was a little bit more fun.

Accessible, quotable and rarely predictable, the Portsmouth manager has survived and prospered on the back of an ability to spot good players and bring the very best out of those on whom others may have given up.

Whatever reasons he may have had for turning down Newcastle at the turn of the year — and they surely must go deeper than those he admits — it is hard not to view his latest achievement as a victory for loyalty.

Redknapp has never stood on the pitch at Wembley. Now he has the opportunity to do so twice in a competition that badly needed the injection of unpredictability and romance given to it by Portsmouth, Barnsley and Cardiff on a sensational weekend of proper cup football.

Portsmouth the favourites for the FA Cup. Who would have believed it?

"To win the FA Cup would be fantastic for this club," said Redknapp in the wake of his team's victory at Manchester United on Saturday.

"We have made big strides over the past five or six years. It has been amazing. At one time we were struggling at the bottom of the Championship. Now look at us.

"I am happy here and even happier now. It will be a huge thrill for me and for all of us to go to Wembley. As an Englishman, to win the FA Cup Final would be great. It might even encourage one of the top four clubs to give an English manager a chance.

"It was a difficult decision not to go to Newcastle. But I was thinking about the players who I had encouraged to come here, who I had told what we could achieve. I thought to myself that I could not do that and then walk away myself. It is easy for people to say: "You should have taken the challenge on". If I was 40 I might have done. But I didn't want to be away from wife and my grandchildren.

"I have a great team here. If I wasn't and things were going wrong, I might have thought: "Let's get away from this before it really goes wrong". But that's not the case. In fact, with a couple more players I think we can be a real force in the Premier League."

There is plenty of snobbery about Redknapp in football circles. He is dismissed by some as a chancer who builds teams for today on the back of worldwide minesweeping; a collector of eclectic footballers rather than a coach.

But those who know him properly will tell you of a football obsessive, a man who cannot stop talking or thinking about the game. In the Redknapp house on the south coast, there is certainly not much chance of Coronation Street getting on the TV when Harry is home.

Redknapp is from the Jim Smith/Dave Bassett/David Pleat school of management. Who would you rather talk football with? These guys or Avram Grant?

In paying tribute to the vanquished Sir Alex Ferguson on Saturday, he unwittingly provided an insight into his own footballcluttered world.

Redknapp added: "Alex Ferguson is five or six years older than me but he still has that same enthusiasm. Football takes your life over. Half an hour before the game we were in his office just talking football about lower league clubs and how his lad's team were doing at Peterborough.

"The other week I went to see a game at Reading and he turned up. Most people would just send their scouts. Not him. He was there himself. We just love watching games."

Relaxing in the glow of victory on Saturday, Redknapp told a great tale of how he was on the golf course with his son Jamie when news of his quarter-final pairing with United reached him on his mobile phone.

"The eight-iron went further than the ball once I heard that," he said. This lunchtime it is hard to believe he will be anywhere but in front of his TV when the draw for the last four is made.

After this result, Redknapp and his players will feel anything is possible, indeed probable. Portsmouth enjoyed a little fortune on their way to beating United by a single goal. Of course they did.

At Old Trafford you need it. United should have had a penalty when Cristiano Ronaldo fell under Sylvain Distin's clumsy shoulder charge early on and Michael Carrick will have woken yesterday morning wondering just how he managed to conjure a complete air shot as he tried to nudge the ball over the line from a yard out in the second half.

There was a touch of farce, too, about Portsmouth's winning goal as Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney squabbled over the goalkeeper's jersey like schoolboys in the wake of Tomasz Kuszczak's sending-off in the 75th minute.

But Sulley Muntari's ensuing penalty was expertly taken and there was much else to admire about Portsmouth's performance.

The spine of Redknapp's team was its strength. David James, Sol Campbell, Distin and Lassana Diarra were mightily impressive. On a deteriorating pitch, Portsmouth's levels of fitness and determination were outstanding.

United accepted their fate with a typical lack of grace but to dwell on their moaning would be to lend it some kind of credibility. This was not a day for griping. It was a day for glamour. A day for glory.