Bob Jackson took charge of Portsmouth at the beginning of the 1946-1947 season, the first competitive post-war season in English football. He guided a perennially unsuccessful Portsmouth side to 8th place in the top flight in his first year at the helm. At the beginning of the next season, club chairman Mr Vernon Stokes called for Portsmouth to win the league in honour of the club's jubilee anniversary; Bob Jackson promptly responded by winning six of the first seven games in 1948-49 and went on to win the league championship for the first time in Portsmouth's history. They came close to sealing an historic first 20th century English league and FA cup double, losing in the cup final to Leicester City in the event. They failed to score in only 6 matches all season and dominated with superb four and five goal victories on several occasions. Jackson followed this season up with a second successive league title in 1949-50, Portsmouth's second and last league title. He left for Hull and never achieved such success again; meanwhile the excellent team he built crumbled as good players were not replaced by future managers. However, Jackson will always be remembered by the Portsmouth faithful as their greatest manager and someone who achieved unprecedented success with an unfashionable side.
British league champions: 2
Foreign league champions: 0
European cup: 0
NB Photograph is of a Portsmouth FA cup triumph just before Jackson's arrival.
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