KEVIN Ball revealed he upset Portsmouth groundsman Bob Jones on several occasions during his playing days at Fratton Park and says he intends to do so again this afternoon by dragging Pompey down into the Championship with them.

Ball makes a sentimental journey back to the club where he made 184 appearances, before his six-year association was ended when former boss Denis Smith swooped in a £350,000 deal to take the tough-tackling defender to Wearside.

The Black Cats' caretaker boss says he has fond memories of his spell on the south coast and admits he is looking forward to locking horns with Pompey's grumpy old groundsman.

"I hope Bob is still there," reminisced Ball, who is still looking to record his first win as Sunderland manager.

"He has always had absolute pride in his pitch. If he ever caught us on it, he would give us a right telling off. He was great, a typical character you would get at grounds.

"It will be nice to see him and see how he is. He probably won't have a kind word to say to me, because that's what he's like.

"But it's a fantastic game to look forward too. All those years ago I could never have thought that I would be going back as the caretaker manager of a Premiership club.

"They are going well at the moment, we will be going there to have a good go so hopefully it will make for a good game. It has all the ingredients.

"People have described Fratton Park as an old rickety ground but I don't see it like that. I see it as a fantastic old football ground with a great history. When the crowd get behind their team in any game, they are the proverbial 12th man. Because it's so close-knit, it makes for a tremendous atmosphere. It will be like that this weekend.

"I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Luke (my son) was born in St Mary's, just around the corner from Fratton Park, and I loved living there."

The Black Cats' caretaker manager revealed Easter Monday's 4-1 defeat to bitter rivals Newcastle United has left a bitter taste in his mouth.

He still can't come to terms with being on top for nearly 60 minutes only for his side to spectacularly implode in the final third of the game.

"Was that as hard to take as anything ever experienced? Yes it was," revealed the Hastings-born 41-year-old.

"When I look back at my career there will always be games which I will look back on and think 'that one was hard to bear, that was hard to take'. I was looking at the clock (at the time) and thinking 'they are doing well here' and then the goal came out of nothing. The second and third came very quickly after that and I can't deny that it hurt.

"The fact it was our local rivals and the fact that we beat ourselves. They didn't beat us.

"Anyone who was at the game would say we were by far the better team up to that goal. They had two or three goals in that short space of time and it flattered them.

"But I can't get away from the fact that Newcastle beat us 4-1 in our own backyard. No matter how it happened, it's hard to take."

The Black Cats are hunting for a first victory in 13 Premiership outings when they take on Pompey today and need seven more points from the last four games to beat their own (and the Premier League's) lowest ever points tally of 19.

The club also needs five points to avoid the lowest top flight total (17 recorded by Stoke City in 1984) since three points for a win was introduced.

The Stadium of Light club also need one more victory to avoid setting a new mark for least wins in a top flight season. They are two wins short of equalling their own previous lowest mark of four in the Premiership. They've lost 26 times and should they fail to pick up another point, they'd break the record for most losses in a Premier League campaign.

When all these facts are taken into consideration, it's understandable why Ball insists everything is still to play for as the club stare relegation in the face for the ninth time in their history - and on eight occasions from the top flight.

"I have been asked if there's anything left for us to play for," said a bullish Ball. "That sort of thing annoys me. I doubt the players think there is nothing to play for. It is something I will emphasise to them. The thing they have to play for is, in my opinion, one of the biggest things of all and that is personal pride.

"The players are fully aware of it (the points target). I'm fully aware of things. But I won't say 'we're going to do this, we're going to do that' because talk is cheap. Doing it is the hard part."