Today reminds me of the Guy, Gilly and Gatesy days. After a cracking win at a very wet Fratton Park, Gilly came out with the great line: The sunderland fans will be going home like my missus will be later. Wet and happy.
Whoever conceded first were always gonna struggle today. Once the second went in. Game over. Fratton Park is a nightmare to begin with. Throw a typhoon into the mix....... Still, disappointed we didn't make more of a fist of it.
Take this one on the chin as we weren't good enough, lj has a big task on Tuesday as he's got to get the team right also next Saturday as its a similar game to today's. Players need to step up now and show that this was just a one off and I'm glad no one is blaming the weather for the result
We don’t play next Saturday - postponed. Our next league game is in 14 days. Don’t care about Tuesday night in the ****e cup.
Cheers mate just thought it was away to Gillingham next week but that'll be after the internationals I take it
I agree it was in parts. What he actually missed was that he got his tactics wrong. When a team, or individual is set up to fail (in any profession) confidence suffers. Portsmouth were set up to win tactically and grew in confidence and belief; so I would dismiss LJs comments re desire etc and reword them in terms of confidence and belief. One team's was growing and the other shrinking
well, time to calm down a bit...and i don't mind repeating myself here but that game was a non-starter imho, it was one uncontrolled slide away from a serious injury (look at the way one of pompey's player slid into the linesman and all but took him out) and the player making the tackle would be gutted. now then, both teams had to face the conditions and we did not adapt to them at all, once that first goal went in i honestly could not see us fighting back for a win so was hoping for a draw but the second goal finished that as a possible result...no idea why we insisted on trying to play down the channels, on a surface such as that you need to get the defence heading towards their own goal. as i said earlier i do not feel we were outplayed in a football sense they just handled it better (to be honest, it was never a pitch for football) so i guess they deserve credit for that although i am loathe to give any due to the conditions, you honestly cannot plan for a pitch in that state although once the 'sticky patches' have been noted then a manager should be able to alter his plans, we seemed to stick with the same one of trying to play it around on the deck. pretty sure i said earlier in the week that i did not think dajaku was ready for a start and have seen some saying dan neil should have started, to be honest that pitch would have ruined his style of play and limited him severely i think, or we may have discovered he has a lot more to his game and handled it perfectly but i feel it was initially a good call to leave him on the bench. one to chalk off and move on, two weeks till the next league game so plenty time to go over this, work with the new lads some more and get others fit/closer to fitness.
I do not do meltdowns often, but imho the players just bottled it, not helped by poor tactics/selection. Blips will occur, we know that, and its a long season, so let's see how we bounce back..
It just wasn't the right game to start Dajaku in, even in excellent conditions I would have had reservations about him starting but never in a hundred years would I have started him in that. Not sure would I would have done but it wasn't a game for playing out from the back and our usual kind of game which we tried to do.
