It is 1976 and the day before reopening, a young-faced 16-year-old has just entered through the door of the newly built bar, which was still looking like a construction site. That young man looked around the walls which were covered in black and white photos, adorned with legends such as Stan Cribb, Jimmy Scoular and Peter Harris. The same day that freshed-faced youngster officially joined Gosport Borough.

Nearly 40 years later that same person entered that same Boro’ which again was a construction site the day before reopening. The difference this time is that plastic barriers were being fitted and arrows being placed on the floor, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The pictures are now all in colour, mainly of the infamous day at Wembley for the Boro’ in the FA Trophy final against Cambridge United.

“I remember when I first arrived here this was newly built and the photos here [pointing at the wall] all used to be in black-and-white. It is a bit more modern here now than when I first came, but I still get the same feeling every time.” Those were words of Gary Juryeff, a man who was able to have a joke, but don’t be mistaken.

Juryeff was a fierce competitor and was one of the best technical players at the club. In his time at the club, Juryeff won two successive Hampshire league titles, one promotion a Hampshire Senior Cup., a South West Pratten Cup, he was also selected for a Southern League XI and played for an FA XI twice.

Juryeff can always remember playing football with his brother Ian Juryeff, who went on to play for Southampton, but mostly with Leyton Orient FC. Ian in fact holds the record for the youngest person to make his first team debut or Boro at just 14. Whether playing was in the local park or in the front and back garden, it was football 24/7.

The games between his brother was where he gained his competitive spirit, with regular arguments about whether or not it was a goal, whose throw-in it was and if there was a foul or not.

This competition between the brothers didn’t stop at just football, with arguments whilst playing tennis, cricket or even board games. Even when the two were playing for professional teams the eagerness to beat each other didn’t stop.

“I played from a very early age. My brother was three years younger than me, but we were always playing football. We lived-and-breathed football.

“Without a doubt the rivalry with my brother helped me as a player. I didn’t like losing to him and I’m sure he didn’t like losing to me. There were many heated discussions over the game of football, or tennis, cricket and even tiddly-winks.”

Juryeff was brought up as a Portsmouth fan, something he got from his dad, with his first memory of Pompey was going to watch them against Arsenal in 1971 in the FA cup, which ended up in a 1-1 draw. Juryeff can still easily remember seeing for the first time a sold-out Fratton Park and noise coming from the terraces.

It wasn’t only Portsmouth that Juryeff was watching as a kid, regularly watching Gosport Borough whenever he could not get to Fratton Park. It was the trips down to watch the Boro’ which built his desire to play at a floodlit Privett Park with hundreds of passionate locals cheering his name.

“In the late 60s my dad was a keen Pompey fan. The game which really comes to mind is a FA Cup match against Arsenal and Fratton Park was heaving. Going to Fratton Park always got the juices flowing.

“I always came to Privett Park when Portsmouth weren’t at home. Most people in Gosport wanted to go there at the time. It was an enclosed, floodlit stadium, plus the occasion and atmosphere there was fantastic.”

The first football team Juryeff played for was while he was at Rowner Junior School at the age of eight and went on to be picked by Gosport & Fareham Schools when he was nine-years-old. It was from there Juryeff went to play for a Sunday League side called Hillside Youth Club after being spotted by Bill Kircher, a side made up of at least seven former Gosport & Fareham Schools players and went on to stay together for the next five or six years.

In the end it was Kircher’s influence that was able to get Juryeff into Gosport Borough through the Youth set-up under the experience and guidance of Navy and FA Coach Dennis Probee. Dave Hurst, was also a very close friend of Kircher and was in fact, the Secretary of the Portsmouth Lads League. He later went onto become Youth Development Officer for Portsmouth, bringing through players such as Kit Symons, Andy Awford and Darren Anderton to Pompey.

“Bill Kircher, had a lot of local contacts particularly Dave Hurst, who ended up going to Portsmouth as a Development Officer, so that was probably the biggest influence on my career at that particular time, Dave was also Assistant Manager of the Hampshire Youth Side in 1977 who Gary represented.

“When I got to 16 I turned up at Gosport Youth, who were playing under Dennis Probee a respected FA Coach, but I only ended up playing a handful of games.”

Despite playing the youth side of Gosport Borough, it was not long before Juryeff got to the first team. It was a dream come true for Juryeff, who like many local footballers at the time had been desperate to play under the floodlights of Privett Park.

“I was desperate to play for them being a Gosport-guy. On a Sunday morning there were pitches outside Privett chockablock with people watching and most playing on those pitches, had ambitions to play in the Enclosure and wanted to play on the surface at Privett Park.”

The challenge at the time though for Juryeff was immense, having skipped the reserves and joined the first team who were playing in the Hampshire league. The slight six-foot 16-year-old was coming into an established dressing room, with some doubting him on first impressions, but he was able to adapt quickly and prove to many of them, why he had been fast-tracked to the first team.

“It seemed like a natural progression, which seems quite strange. I felt really comfortable in the surroundings. I know when I first joined a lot of players commented on the size of me, being scrawny and stuff like that, and whether I would be able to cope with the demands of First Team Football, but I seemed to adapt and just got on with it.”

It was success straight away for Juryeff at Gosport Borough, in only his first half season at the club he had helped the club win their first league title in 31 seasons, winning the 1976/77 Hampshire league and getting to the quarter finals of the FA Vase. Juryeff was a crucial member of the team and there was no doubt now that he was one of the most talented players at the club.

Juryeff vividly remembers the 1-0 victory against Swaythling in which they won the league title, the booming atmosphere and pitch which was surrounded by hundreds of locals. It was the start of something special at Gosport Borough, which would end up with countless victories and plenty more trophies for the club.

“I remember having a shot in the match in the tenth minute from about 30 yards which went straight over the fence, but the biggest memory of that match was the atmosphere, Privett Park at the time was fantastic.”

The side had a mixture of both talented players but also players that wanted to play for the club. This passion for Gosport Borough, meant that the team spirit was unbelievable with the players spending the very little money they earned at the bar. It wasn’t just the players that were socialising together, but the wives and children of each player would interact and enjoy each other's company.

The close bond of the team meant that players were always at risk of a good practical joke. Juryeff has a particular memory of walking out onto a muddy pitch in his new clean, white Gosport Borough shirt only for his team Richie Coulbert to trip him up as the teams were walking out.

“None of us were big-time Charlie’s, we all got on well with each other. On a Saturday night, we would regularly return from away games and go straight down and spend all our winnings in the local pub.”

Ultimately, the momentum behind Gosport Borough at the time meant that the club went onto win their second title in-a-row and would be elected to join the Southern League.

“We were becoming the topside locally, before it had been Waterlooville, but all of the sudden it was switching towards us. We sort of had a period of dominance locally and then we got to this point where every new challenge we just took in our stride.”

When Gosport joined the Southern League Juryeff now felt that he was in the big-time, playing against the likes of Worcester City, Dover and Chelmsford who had grounds which could match those in the football league.

It wasn’t a case of Gosport turning up to these established sides and getting steam-rollered, with Boro’ able to get 1-0 victories at well-established non-league sides such as the likes of, Salisbury, Nuneaton Borough, Dartford and Dover. In the 1979/80 season (their first in the Southern League) they managed to finish third and did not drop out of the top four in the next four seasons.

The performances of Juryeff for Gosport were enough for him to get his dream move to Portsmouth in 1981. Having stood in the terraces of Fratton Park as a kid, Juryeff was now going to walk out onto the pitch. A fee of £10,000 was agreed between the two Clubs.

His dream move however, didn’t go to plan, one or two, made it clear that he wasn’t welcome, prejudicing his non-league background. Despite this, he was appearing in First Team games arranged behind closed doors and playing well. However, just as Juryeff was starting to gain momentum and confidence, it was all swept beneath his feet, with the manager that brought him in Frank Burrows being sacked and the new manager, Bobby Campbell, deciding not to extend Juryeff’s contract.

“Within a couple of months I went from being told that I’ve got an extension to my contract to then being told I’ve got nothing. That was in February 82 and I was getting married in July so when I had booked the wedding I thought my future was secured, so everything changed very quickly.”

Juryeff though was able to pick himself up from the disappointment of being released by Portsmouth and there was only one team he was interested in playing for. Despite the call of madness by his brother and father not to accept offers from teams which were in the Conference, “they felt I guess, that he would provide me with an easier route to becoming a Professional again,” Gosport Borough however, was the team that Juryeff had set his heart back on.

It was a side in which Juryeff felt comfortable and was freely able to express himself on the pitch. Whilst at Portsmouth he would be barked at for even getting near the half-way line as a right-back, at Gosport, he would bomb up and down the right-hand side much like a modern wing-back.

Despite being in familiar settings, the 1983/84 season was a season to forget for Gosport Borough and Juryeff, with the team suffering relegation in the newly revamped Southern Premier League. Injuries to key players such as Coulbert and Ally Unitt meant that Boro’s main goal threat was lost.

However, the team quickly recovered from it, going to be promoted the next season, winning an incredible 16 games in their last 19 matches of the season.

“It was a crazy time. We were scoring goals in the last minute, goals were going in off your knees or any part of the body, but we were getting points after being under pressure for the majority of the game. We used to laugh about how we would have to ‘dig the trenches for this game.”

Promotion was finally sealed on the last day of the season when Gosport beat Salisbury 5-0 in front of over 1,500 fans at Privett Park.

“It was a fantastic occasion, Privett Park was absolutely buzzing. There were probably more than 1500 people there. I think on the day we had to win by three goals, but we had that momentum and mentality to go on to get the result we needed.”

In 1988 Gosport were able to earn more success winning the Hampshire Senior Cup this time under the management of former Boro’ Trevor Williams. Boro were able to earn a surprise 3-1 victory against Farnborough, who were in the Conference league, at the Dell, at the time the home of Southampton.

“Farnborough were in the Conference league and they were the big-time Charlie’s with their nice tracksuits on before the game. We kept our heads down and did our job. It was an awesome night and a great experience.”

Under Williams, Boro were playing a completely new style of play compared to that under previous managers Tony Brickwood and Pete Edgar. Instead of long balls it was now passing out from the back and encouraging the full-backs to join in the attack, tactics which do not look too out of place in modern-day football.

In 1989, however, Juryeff decided to leave Gosport Borough for Havant. His love and passion for Boro hadn’t wavered, however his job as an estate agent meant that Juryeff couldn’t commit to the long travelling required in the Southern League.

At Havant, Juryeff enjoyed further success helping the side to promotion but similar to the situation at Gosport, he couldn’t commit to the travelling required in the Southern League. By 1993 Juryeff had moved to Eastleigh, but rejoined Gosport Borough, after they themselves had been relegated to the Wessex League and therefore he could commit to both his job and to the team.

However, it wasn’t the same club that Juryeff rejoined, with the club put under financial restraints and the momentum which had been built over the 1980s all but lost. Juryeff also was a different player to the one that rejoined in 1981 with his body losing that half-a-yard, and by 1996 he had decided to retire.

Despite not being involved in the club for over 20 years, the passion and support Juryeff shows for Gosport Borough is still the same, heading down to Privett Park as many times as he can during the season. Juryeff, like many will be hoping that those pictures in the bar will be updated soon with more promotion and title success.