Unfinished business inspires Hislop and Pompey revolution

Trinidadian happy among veterans who inspire confidence for promoted club's survival

It'S fitting that he is last off the training ground. After all Shaka Hislop is the man charged today with trying to become the first visiting goalkeeper in 43 Premiership games to leave Highbury without picking the ball out of his net. "That doesn't fill me with a whole lot of hope," the 6ft 4in Trinidadian says with a chuckle which lasts as long as it takes him to absorb the task ahead against Arsenal. And that is a long time.

Earlier the cry of "Shaka's!" resounded over the "phut-phut" of the sprinklers at Portsmouth's Wellington Sports Ground long after the rest of the first-team squad had retreated from the lunchtime drizzle. Almost two hours later and the amiable 34-year-old "drags his bones' into the players" canteen after intensive work in the gym and the recuperative effects of a massage. "I've spent a lot more hours in there to compensate for my aches and pains and keep them at bay," he says. In particular there is a troublesome abdominal injury. "The years have taken their toll."

Born in Hackney, east London, Neil S Hislop, to give him his correct name ("Shaka" is in honour of a Zulu chief and Hislop's father's love of African heritage), knows he is approaching the end of a career which started while studying at Howard University in the United States, where he completed a degree in mechanical engineering - "it's not done me much good", he laughs. From there he went to the Baltimore Blasts, Reading, Newcastle United (for a then record £1.5m) and West Ham United before arriving on the south-coast two years ago. He joined on a free transfer after his career had stalled for a second time - David James supplanting him at Upton Park as Shay Given had at Newcastle. And there is something of a "guerrilla" atmosphere to Harry Redknapp's Revolution - older players such as Hislop, Steve Stone, Teddy Sheringham, Patrik Berger who have all, for varying reasons, been left with something to prove or with a sense of unfinished business. Even new arrivals such as the West Bromwich striker Jason Roberts and West Ham's Sébastian Schemmel have that motivation. "Harry makes you believe in yourself," says Hislop, a keen student of management, who is doing his coaching badges, and who has played for Redknapp for five years now. "That is his strongest point. He takes a team and makes it believe we can do things, we can beat people. That we can go to grounds such as Man City and win and we were unfortunate not to do so."

Indeed they were. Three points there - denied by an injury-time equaliser - and Ponpey would have been above Manchester United in the Premiership table. Instead the First Division champions are a dizzying third in their first season in the big-time for 15 years. "If we were to stand any chance of survival in this league we had to get off to a good start and we've done that," Hislop, a former England Under-21 international, says, "although we are not getting carried away with it, looking at the league table at the moment. I don't want to tempt fate in any way but we certainly believe we have enough quality to stay in the Premier League."

The squad has undergone radical re-building twice - last year, to get into the Premiership, and this summer, to try and stay in it. But it is Harry's team, after all. "There was a big change at the start of last season. In our first game against Nottingham Forest we had nine new signings in the starting XI and we won," Hislop, one of those nine, says. And Portsmouth also won against Aston Villa on the first game of this season. That day the team had a relatively modest five new faces. Hislop knows the victory was vitally important. "As the game progressed I guess everyone was a little bit apprehensive as to exactly how we would fair," he says. "We got the first win and there was relief from the stands. It gave everybody real belief." The winning goal was scored by Berger - a free transfer from Liverpool. The first by Sheringham who followed it up with a hat-trick against Bolton Wanderers. "Without a doubt the manager had to bring in Premier League players," Hislop says. "We have strikers who can make a goal out of nothing."

There are also two new goalkeepers to challenge his position - the "veteran" Dutchman Harald Wapenaar (who is younger than Hislop) and Pavel Srnicek, a former team-mate from his Newcastle days - although Hislop says he thrives on the camaraderie that rivalry brings. "We understand how fragile the position [of goalkeeper] is and, from that respect, we always give each other as much support as we can," he says. So speaks a man who intends to return to Trinidad, where he grew up, at the end of his career - maybe at the end of next season when his current contract expires "ask Harry about that!" - to become a goalkeeping coach. It is an art much neglected in the West Indies where he will also pursue business interests with his wife, a fellow Trinidadian, and their three daughters (plus latest arrival due in two weeks' time).

"I know I am coming to the end [of my career]," Hislop says. "I will be 35 next birthday and probably seriously considering retirement. But I am enjoying myself." There is, of course, that sense of unfinished business which continues today. "I'm excited about it," he says of the forthcoming contest against Thierry Henry and Co. "These are the games you want to play in and the ones we had our sights set on last season - to test ourselves against the best.

"We have defended well so far this season and we'll hope not to give them any easy goals. If they do score then it certainly will be a goal they will have to earn. It will show how far we have come as a club and for a lot of us as individuals."

Not that an attacking Portsmouth - 17 clean sheets last season for Hislop and two already this - will come to defend. "To play well in this league you have to be able to play football, it is not just about defending and not conceding goals - you have to pose a threat," Hislop says. "The long-ball game is no good, you have to get the ball down and play." Which they will. There will be a dip, of course, at some point this season. "Everybody knows that, understands that," Hislop says. "We know our squad isn't as big as Arsenal and others and that injuries will take their toll and suspensions but we will deal with that when the time comes." Deal with it - and enjoy it.