Pub landlady Karen Murphy's successful stand against Premier League and Sky proves just the tonic for regulars

The blackboard in the Red, White and Blue pub in Southsea, Portsmouth, is normally used for chalking up the scores in the local Summer Darts League, which the regulars here usually win.

On Tuesday, though, it was celebrating a very different result, which was decided more than 300 miles away in Luxembourg. "Murphy 2," said the board, "Sky 0".

Walking into the RWB on Tuesday afternoon, it was hard to find a square metre of space, given the number of photographers and television cameras camped around the bar.

But the regulars didn't seem to care: there were 12 or 15 drinkers enjoying the unaccustomed attention, and taking the slightest opportunity to launch into glowing tributes to their landlady.

"Karen is the only person who has seen this all the way through," said Norman Campkin, a former military man with an Old Testament beard. "There were at least four other pubs in Portsmouth who were doing the same thing, but they faded away when the fines were handed out."

The next man along the bar agreed. "The whole country will benefit from what Karen has fought for," said Andrew Sedgeman. "It's nice to see one person who is prepared to stand her ground and win her battle."

How definitive will that victory be? Opinions differed. Sedgeman had a few misgivings, suggesting that "pubs had better be careful about going out and buying a Greek decoder because this could be a short-lived decision – the big corporations will always bounce back".

But on the technical question of copyright – which the Premier League hopes will prevent unlicensed pubs and clubs from broadcasting their branded footage – Sedgeman had an ingenious solution. If certain Japanese movies are able to blur the actors' — ahem – intimate areas, he suggested, then shouldn't it be possible to find some software to remove the English Premier League logo before transmission?

Failing that, someone else piped up, you could block out the problematic graphics with stickers on the relevant parts of the screen. Which gave rise to the equally peculiar idea that the EPL might arrange for its logo to migrate around the screen, just to foil any potential pirates.

If the Murphy-Sky battle has been portrayed as a David and Goliath affair, the impression is only enhanced when you visit the RWB and see what an intimate little pub it is, nestled on Southsea's dowdy Fawcett Road alongside Laly's Pharmacy and a Chinese takeaway.

As Campkin points out, 40 drinkers here counts as a capacity crowd. And while the space might fill up quickly in the hours before a Portsmouth home match (Fratton Park is only five minutes away), alternate weekends during the football season see fans walking in and then straight out again in search of live footage.

"There's something very enjoyable about watching the game in your local pub," said Nick Whyley, better known to his fellow drinkers as Wurzel. "So I hope we can get this decision rubber-stamped at the High Court and the football back on the telly."

A season-ticket holder at Fratton Park, Whyley attends every home match despite the fact that he is almost completely blind, and the RWB proudly displays the trophy he won in 2007 as Portsmouth supporter of the year.

Despite his passion for the local club, Whyley has no sympathy for the argument – clumsily expressed by Wigan chairman Dave Whelan on Tuesday – that the European Court of Justice ruling will hurt football clubs' income.

"These people think the money train is going to last for ever," he said. "If players are going to keep insisting on these fantasy wages, they can push off. You see them kissing the badge when they score, but if you asked them to describe that badge two minutes later, I bet they couldn't do it."

(Published by The Telegraph - October 4, 2011)