Portsmouth are set for their fifth consecutive League One season in 2021/22 but it doesn't seem all that long ago that they were competing in the top flight.

Danny Cowley will be hoping to help the Fratton Park outfit climb back up the English football pyramid and return to where the club's fanbase likely thinks they belong, the Premier League.

It's been more than a decade since they dropped out of the top tier before dramatically sliding down to League Two.

Their return has been a slow process but if they can make the next step and secure promotion to the Championship this term, it'll be a huge achievement and a real sign that they're moving in the right direction.

Pompey's spell in the Premier League saw them come up against some lethal goalscorers but it's not just top flight marksmen that have caused them issues over the years.

With that in mind, we've highlighted 10 players Portsmouth seemed to hate playing against...

We start our list with a proper Premier League legend.

Wayne Rooney is England and Manchester United's all-time leading scorer and sits behind only Alan Shearer when it comes to Premier League goals.

With that in mind, it's perhaps no surprise that his record against Pompey is exemplary.

In 15 games against the South Coast club, the former England and United captain scored 12 times and added two assists.

His first goals against them came for Everton in the 2003/04 season – scoring the winner in a 2-1 victory at Fratton Park and then the only goal of the game in the reverse fixture at Goodison Park.

Next up is more top flight royalty.

Frank Lampard was one of the greatest goalscoring midfielders that the Premier League has ever seen – scoring 177 times in the division before he hung up his boots.

He enjoyed facing Pompey it seems as well, scoring 10 times and adding three assists in his 16 appearances against the club.

Lampard's record against the Fratton Park outfit was remarkable as he won all 16 of the games he played against them.

They will no doubt have been happy to see the back of him, though they dropped out of the top flight a fair bit before his retirement.

Arguably the finest foreign player ever to play in the Premier League, Thierry Henry certainly made the most of his games against Portsmouth.

He faced the South Coast club on seven occasions, scoring nine times and adding an assist, and was never on the losing side – winning four times and drawing on three occasions.

That included two braces and a hat-trick, with the latter coming in a 3-0 win at Highbury in March 2005.

As with the two names preceding Henry, it's no shame to have been dominated by a player of his stature and that's exactly what happened almost every time.

When Luton Town were promoted to the Championship, Portsmouth may well have been breathing a sigh of relief as it meant less opportunities for James Collins to find the net against them.

The Republic of Ireland international has since proven himself a useful goalscorer in the second tier but prior to that, he tormented Pompey in the EFL's lower divisions.

Collins scored eight goals and added two assists in 10 appearances against the South Coast club – winning seven times and losing on only three occasions.

Not only that, the striker's goals came for four different clubs, including four in one game for Swindon Town.

Didier Drogba always seemed to enjoy facing Portsmouth and terrorised them throughout his Chelsea career.

The talismanic Blues striker won all eight of his games against the club, scoring seven times and providing four assists.

Arguably his finest display against Pompey was in a 5-0 thrashing at Fratton Park in March 2010 when he bagged a brace and an assist.

The fact that injury and international responsibilities meant Drogba was missed five games against the South Coast club while he was a Chelsea player will likely be a relief for fans.

You dread to think what his stats would've looked like had he been available.

This list is turning into a bit of a who's who of great Premier League strikers because up next is Jermain Defoe.

His record is made all the more impressive given the English forward spent a year with Pompey between January 2008 and January 2009.

There's no denying that he enjoyed playing against the club, however, as his six goals in 11 appearances against them illustrate.

The majority of his goals against Pompey came before he joined them in 2008 and likely were a factor in his move to the South Coast outfit.

It would've been understandable if there were some worried fans when he was linked with a move to Sunderland earlier this year.

One of few players on this list whose impressive record against Portsmouth didn't come during their Premier League days, all of Francois Zoko's goals against them were scored in the last decade.

Zoko always seemed to thrive when facing Pompey as in his seven games against them he scored six goals – the most of any club during his career.

It didn't matter whether it was for Notts County, Yeovil Town, or Stevenage, nor whether it was in League One, League Two, or the FA Cup, the 37-year-old never tired of scoring against them.

Pompey had the last laugh as though he scored in his final game against the club in 2016/17, Zoko's side were comprehensively beaten 3-1 at Fratton Park.

Another striker that had a brief spell with the South Coast club, Jason Roberts scored four goals in 12 games while on loan with Pompey in the 2003/04 campaign.

That didn't stop him causing them pain over the years, however, as the journeyman striker went on to bag six goals and two assists in his 11 appearances against the Fratton Park outfit.

West Ham United were the only other club that Roberts scored more than five goals against in his career and it took him 16 games against the Hammers to do that.

It seems there was just nothing like facing Pompey for the former Grenada international.

When you look at the clubs that Nicolas Anelka represented in his career, a prestigious list that includes the likes of Arsenal, Real Madrid, Chelsea, and Juventus, it's perhaps no surprise that he proved too much for Portsmouth to handle at times.

The Frenchman's six goals against the club came in just 10 games, with all six coming in the Premier League.

Three came for Chelsea, two for Bolton, and one for Manchester City in the days before they'd become a European superpower.

He was even part of the Blues side that handed Pompey heartbreak in the 2009/10 FA Cup final.

Given how this list started, it seems only fitting that we're ending it with another Premier League legend.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored six goals and added two assists in 12 goals against Portsmouth – with many of them proving memorable moments in his career.

Ronaldo's first goal for United game as a substitute in a 3-0 win at Old Trafford in November 2003, while who can forget that free kick at the same stadium five years later.

The South Coast club will likely be one of many English sides that were happy to see the back of him when he moved to Real Madrid.