The end of this month will mark seven years since Portsmouth beat Sunderland in the final of the 38th edition of the EFL Trophy. The final brought with it a competition record 85,021 fans to Wembley.
Now, with this year’s final fast approaching, it’s clear to see how quickly things can change in the world of football.
The Scotsman was crucial in Portsmouth’s victory as he brilliantly saved Lee Cattermole’s penalty in the shoot-out.
MacGillivray comfortably established himself as first-choice goalkeeper for Kenny Jackett’s blues, racking up 135 appearances.
Since leaving Pompey though, the now 33 year old shot-stopper has gone on to make appearances for fellow EFL clubs Charlton Athletic and Burton Albion.
Following this he went on loan to Stevenage FC for the second half of the 2024/25 season from his current employers MK Dons in league two.
His EFL trophy triumph with Pompey remains his only career trophy to date.
The Englishman became a fan favourite among the Fratton faithful at Pompey. He amassed six goals and 14 assists in 131 appearances for the Blues, joining on a free transfer from Bristol Rovers in 2018.
In the final itself, Brown tucked away the third penalty of the shoot-out in style whilst being a consistent performer in Pompey colours throughout his time.
He would go on to leave Fratton Park in 2022, joining AFC Wimbledon and making 69 appearances for the Wombles.
Now retired at the age of 35, after choosing to focus on his mental health, Lee Brown owns Luxury property development company ‘B3 Homes’.
Brown has more recently been recognised for his work on the side of this where he has become a co-commentator for ‘BBC Radio Solent’, ‘Pompey +’ and the club itself.
Brown has appeared as co-commentator in matches as recent as Pompey’s 3-1 victory over 3rd place Millwall. During this, his love for the club was shown to be very much still present.
Matt Clarke collected 175 appearances in Pompey colours, scoring 9 in his two spells at the club.
These performances did not go unnoticed however, as in 2019 he earned a move to Premier league Brighton and Hove Albion for a fee in the region of £3.5 million.
The former Pompey favourite was a rock at the back during his time at PO4 and a key reason for the club’s EFL Trophy triumph.
Since his big money move though, Clarke hasn’t quite reached the heights he looked certain to fulfil and by 2022 he had left the Seagulls having not made a single appearance for the club.
Instead, his time at Brighton in fact consisted of experiencing two spells on loan to Derby County and a season-long loan to West Bromwich Albion before joining Middlesbrough permanently.
The Ipswich Town academy graduate is now back at Derby at the age of 29, this time on a permanent basis – having impressed in his two previous loan spells.
Not many would have ever expected the upwards trajectory of Christian Burgess’ career since leaving Pompey in July 2020.
He opted to join Belgian second division side Royal Union Saint-Gilloise, where he has become somewhat of a Champions league star.
Since joining RUSG, the club have secured promotion to the first tier and in 2025, under the captaincy of Burgess himself, won their first Belgian first division title in 90 years.
This earned Burgess and the Belgian outfit their first Champions league campaign in which they secured three shock wins in the group stage against Atalanta, Galatasary and PSV Eindhoven.
Burgess was another well-loved player in Royal blue and he was crucial in Pompey’s endeavours to climb the football pyramid, winning the League Two title in 2017 and making 210 appearances in his 5 year tenure.
Off the pitch, his charitable nature saw his bond with Portsmouth fans grow even further, especially for his volunteering work in the Covid-19 pandemic where he delivered food and prescriptions to vulnerable people during lock-down in the city.
Nathan Thompson scored Portsmouth’s 82nd minute equalising goal in the final and was pivotal in Pompey’s multiple attempts to gain promotion from League One.
He is, like Craig MacGillivray, also currently plying his trade with MK Dons having had spells at Peterborough United and Stevenage since leaving PO4.
It was whilst playing for Stevenage that Thompson infamously got himself sent off for a horror challenge on Pompey-cult-hero Christian Saydee. This, marking a controversial return to Fratton Park for the now 35 year old.
Tom Naylor proved himself very much to be a talented League One operator for Pompey, scoring some notable screamers like his 25-yard goal against Peterborough United and his FA Cup scorcher against Kings Lynn Town.
Since leaving Pompey in 2021, after making 149 appearances for the Blues, Naylor went on to play for Wigan Athletic before joining Chesterfield in 2023 where he now plays under Pompey’s 2017 League Two winning boss, Paul Cook.
Born in Portsmouth, Ben Close played 190 games for Pompey after coming through their ranks.
He’s since gone on to join Doncaster Rovers in 2021, where he was loaned out to Eastleigh in the January window for the remainder of the 2024/25 season.
The local lad was at Wembley with his ‘Dad and Cousin at the 2008 FA Cup Final’, therefore winning a trophy for his home-town club on the Hallowed turf was just that much more special for him.
The forward from Jersey proved his obvious technical ability in his three year tenure at Pompey, scoring 42 goals in 99 appearances as he captained the club to their EFL Trophy triumph.
In his first season at PO4, Pitman scored 24 league goals, coming second in the League One golden boot race.
In this same season, he became the first Pompey player to have scored 20 plus goals in a league campaign since Svetoslav Todorov in the 2002-03 campaign – the same season the Blues secured promotion to the Premier League.
Pitman has gone on to play for Swindon Town and Bristol Rovers since leaving Portsmouth, before he started moving around non-league teams like Baffins Milton Rovers and AFC Portchester.
The 38 year old now plays for Downton FC in the Wessex League Premier Division – the ninth tier of the English Football pyramid.
It’s fair to say that Pitman has still been terrorising defenders, scoring 61 goals in one season for Shaftesbury in the Wessex League Premier Division, including scoring seven in one game during the 2023-24 campaign.
Another fan favourite, who happened to score what looked like the cup winning goal, before Aiden McGeady bagged his second of the game in the 119th minute to take the game to penalties.
Lowe described his goal as “the best goal I’ve ever scored”, labelling the eruption of the blue side of Wembley in the aftermath to be “the loudest thing I have ever been part of.”
In his time at Portsmouth, Lowe won promotion to League One in 2017 and got a total of 47 goal involvements in 119 appearances
Jamal Lowe decided to leave for Wigan Athletic in 2019 and went on to sign for Swansea City and AFC Bournemouth, where he was loaned out to Queens Park Rangers before returning to the Swans on loan.
He now plays for crisis-stricken Sheffield Wednesday and has also gone on to make nine appearances for the Jamaican national team. For ‘The Reggae Boyz’ he has scored twice following his change of international allegiance in 2021.
The 29 year old was incredible for Portsmouth, getting 99 goal involvements in 226 appearances. In his time on the South coast, he also became Portsmouth’s top scorer of the 21st century with 57 goals.
However, Colby Bishop recently overtook him in January, scoring his 58th goal for the club against Arsenal in the FA Cup.
Ronan Curtis now plays for Plymouth Argyle, making a mark on his full debut for the club, recording three assists in his sides 4-3 win against Bristol Rovers, ironically in the round of 16 of the EFL Trophy.
In between this though, Curtis has also played for AFC Wimbledon and Port Vale, never really finding the form he found at PO4.
Bogle was only on loan during his time at Pompey, playing 14 games and scoring five goals before returning back to his parent club Cardiff come the end of the season.
Since then though, Bogle had one more loan spell away from Cardiff City where he joined at the time Dutch top flight side ADO Den Haag FC. Folowing this, Bogle has joined Charlton Athletic, Doncaster Rovers, Hartlepool and Newport County but now finds himself playing for Crewe Alexandra in League Two.
A modern day club legend, Evans got the assist for Nathan Thompson’s 82nd minute equaliser after coming on in the 56th minute and tucked away the first penalty of the shoot-out.
Evans made 218 appearances for the South coast outfit and labelled his time at Pompey as “My favourite time in my career” in an interview for Pompey + back in September.
After leaving Portsmouth, the Fratton favourite went on to play for Bradford City and Radcliffe FC in the National league North.
Now retired, Evans has gone on to do work in media and co-commentary, often doing work with Portsmouth for Pompey + and occasionally doing work for Sky Sports Football and commentating on Portsmouth matches.
Tragically, the Pompey icon passed away in 2023 in America at the age of just 25.
He is fondly remembered at the club despite his short stay. In 2024, his family even came back to Fratton Park after being invited in his honour for an ex-players’ day.
Walkes will always be remembered by the Fratton faithful for his loving nature and hard-working performances in Royal Blue, he was even deservedly commemorated in the club’s 125th anniversary book back in 2024.
Walkes played 66 times for the club during his time on the South Coast before moving to MLS sides Atlanta United in 2020 and then Charlotte FC in 2022.
The 6″6 striker tucked away the match-winning penalty with confidence to secure Pompey’s triumph in the final, evoking pure ecstasy for the 40,000 Pompey fans at Wembley.
Now playing for Barnet in League Two at the age of 33, Hawkins had an interesting career at Portsmouth in which he changed from a striker to a centre back under the command of Kenny Jackett.
Hawkins scored 18 goals in 96 appearances for the Blues but could never truly establish himself as number nine, surprisingly operating very well at centre back.
In between his time at Portsmouth and where he is now at Barnet, Hawkins played for Ipswich Town, Mansfield Town and Gillingham.
The ex-Portsmouth boss came close on so many occasions in his goal to get Pompey back to the second tier of English football but could never seem to get his teams over the line, often crumbling by Christmas.
The trophy win remains Jackett’s most recent success to date.
Kenny Jackett has only had one managerial job since being sacked in March 2021, a short stint at Leyton Orient.
Jackett has since been appointed as director of football at Gillingham in January 2023. However, he more recently decided to step down from his role there due to medical reasons.
This final was a day of pure celebration for the masses of Portsmouth fans who made their way to Wembley for the first time since the 2010 FA Cup final defeat to Chelsea.
It marked a sign of positive things to come, starkly contrasting to what the Chelsea defeat stood for, just nine years prior.
The players shared this feeling of joy undeniably, with many stating this match as the highlight of their career.
These words epitomise the importance of competitions such as the EFL Trophy for fans and players alike, regardless of the journeys they have been on since.
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