‘Trebs’ and Ray Hiron scored in a 2-0 victory over highflying Sheffield United in the 3rd round which set up a 4th round tie with the mighty Arsenal. Another three straight defeats followed which dumped Pompey down to 18th position in the league.įor the following game against Blackburn ‘Trebs’ was restored to the line-up and within a period of eight minutes, in front of the Fratton crowd claimed the honour of becoming the first player in Pompey’s post-war history to score two hat-tricks in a month, a feat only equalled by Hateley (Nov ’83) and Whittingham (Jan ’91) since, as Pompey cruised to a 4-1 victory.īut once again it would be the FA Cup that saw him shine the most. On October 3rd 1970 ‘Trebs’ returned to the side and bagged a hat-trick as Pompey thrashed Watford 5-0, a result with highlighted Pompey’s inconsistencies at the time, as in their next game they suffered a 5-1 home defeat at the hands of Sheffield United a game for which ‘Trebs’ had been dropped. ‘Trebs’ continued to score the odd goal here and there but it wasn’t until the 70/71 season that he really started to live up to his reputation and even then his appearances were still somewhat intermittent. Unfortunately, Pompey were to progress no further eventually losing 2-1 to West Brom, a game again watched by a staggering crowd of 42,542 which, at the time, held claim the record for Pompey’s largest gate receipts for a game – £11,976 ‘Trebs’ saw Pompey through with a single goal in a 1-0 victory and we were in the 5th round for the first time since 1959. Having beaten Peterborough in the 3rd round Pompey had held Fulham to a 0-0 draw at Craven Cottage in the 4th and the thought of a cup run caught the city’s imagination the replay was played out in front of a ground bursting 44,050 crowd, the best attendance at Fratton Park for 16 years. It was to be the FA Cup that would again feature highly in ‘Trebs’ career. Ironically, Ipswich had seemed to make the right decision as O’Rourke’s goals won them promotion to Division 1 along with QPR. Pompey were to finish the season in 5th place. It wasn’t long before ‘Trebs’ had the Fratton faithful on their feet as three minutes into his Fratton debut against Derby he scored helping Pompey to a 3-2 victory.īut that was it… his goal touch deserted him and he was not to score another league goal in his next 12 appearances. ‘Trebs’ made his debut away to Rotherham in February ’68 and gave a good account of himself and although he was unable to mark his debut with a goal Albert McCann benefited from his contribution by following up to score after ‘Trebs’ had hit the bar.

In January 1968, lying second in the table, Pompey forked out a new club record of £40,000 for Trebilcock leaving Ipswich to snap up O’Rourke for £10,000 less Two names were mentioned: Middlesbrough’s prolific striker John O’Rourke and Everton’s Mike Trebilcock. Meanwhile, down at Fratton Park the 1967/68 campaign was going well Pompey were top at Christmas but needed a goalscorer to secure promotion. Now for the continuation of the epic Mike Trebilcock story.įor Part One of this article please click here.ĭespite his heroics in the 1966 FA Cup Final Trebilcock assumed his usual position of spectator for the start of the 1966/67 season and for the next 18 months struggled to establish himself as a regular in the First Division Everton side.

Chelsea trebs