Them Bones Are Looking Bare!

Last updated : 28 March 2004 By Rob Cooper
Harry Redknapp
Ole Harry: the owner of the bare bones phrase
Leicester City slipped into the Premiership's bottom three yesterday afternoon following Portsmouth's 2-1 win at Blackburn, amazingly it was the South Coast side's first away win of the season.

Following Portsmouth's fantastic win, boss Harry Redknapp earnt the highest possible praise from his Reading counterpart Steve Coppell.

Now it is a widely-known fact that Redknapp is a little bit of a fan of the term 'bare bones'. Over the years, whenever his side have been a little short of players due to injury or suspension good ole 'arry has always made reference to the fact that his side 'are down to bare bones'.

These days journalists across the land eagerly await those predictable words every time Redknapp's side are a little short of men. The famous words seem to be entering into the lexical repertoire of football managers across the country.

Yesterday Reading boss Steve Coppell uttered those infamous words following the his side's 2-1 win over Coventry.

The Royals were without Marcus Hahnemann, Nicky Shorey, Nicky Forster, Steve Brown, Adie Williams and Lloyd Owusu yesterday afternoon, certainly giving Coppell reason to officially give his side 'bare bone' status.

Nevertheless, Reading battled well throughout their match and rallied fantastically at the finale to cling onto their tentative one-goal advantage in the dying minutes.

Speaking after the game Coppell praised his stand-in team for doing enough to secure a potentially crucial victory.

"We're down to the bare bones but when we've got bare bones like this I don't mind," said the Reading boss, managing to acclaim both the efforts of his side and the valiant Portsmouth players (purely because he uttered Harry's words).