and Williams also left the playing staff. Coming in were Americans Marc Glass and Kenny Stancell, soon to be replaced by Rich Strong, local star Jason Colgan, Roy Lewis and Russell Taylor. Larry Dassie's number 8 vest, vacant since he left the club at the end of 1985–86, was officially retired as a further tribute to him. Portsmouth played five games in five days in France to prepare for the new season, clocking up 1,400 miles of travelling as they pitted their talents against French top division clubs. They lost to Tours and Gravelines in the first and last matches but won two of the other three. They started their title defence with a 102–88 win at Solent on 19 September 1987, but a week later Manchester United pinched a 70–69 victory at the Mountbatten Centre to leave the champions playing catch-up again. In their next league match Portsmouth gained instant revenge on Manchester United with an 81–73 win in the away game to start a run of seven successive league victories. The sequence ended with a 99–82 hammering at Kingston on 25 November, but that was to prove Portsmouth's last-ever league defeat, as they reeled off 18 more league wins in a row to clinch back-to-back titles. For three months though it was looking like a fruitless pursuit of Kingston, until Calderdale recovered from a poor start to win 89–82 at Tolworth on 14 February 1988. This meant that six nights later Portsmouth needed merely to beat Kingston at the Mountbatten Centre to take over at the top, rather than having to repeat the previous season's 18-point success to win the head-to-head. Just like two years previously the balcony was packed, although this time a row of advertising boards prevented anyone sitting on the floor. The visitors wore a more conventional all-yellow strip and their supporters waved and released dozens of matching balloons, many grabbed and burst by some of the more partisan young Portsmouth supporters. At regular intervals the tunes of the 'Pompey Chimes' and Mike Oldfield's 'Portsmouth' were played on a drum and an amplified glockenspiel. This pivotal clash matched the quality and pace of the 1986 encounter, but with more emphasis on defending and less long runs of scoring. Portsmouth edged into a 17–13 lead, Kingston responded to go up 23–24, the scores were level again at 35 then Portsmouth regained a four-point advantage, going into