Final whistle goes, and it's a 4-0 win for Pompey. Vastly improved second half performance from us, and a well deserved victory. Louis Thompson named man of the match. 3 points and a clean sheet for Gavin Bazunu.
Final Match Stats:- Home Team: Portsmouth .............Away Team: Doncaster Possession: Home 57% Away 43% Shots: Home 15 Away 8 Shots on Target: Home 9 Away 3 Corners: Home 3 Away 1 Fouls: Home 12 Away 13
I was very critiical of the O'Brien signing. However, I have been thinking that the guy has a lot of experience and knows "how to play the game" as a striker, so perhaps he might turn out to be a more than useful signing after all. Well, he is playing to earn a longer contract so hopefully that inspires him.
My first game since the pandametic. Started watching fairly regularly since 2012 and never seen us score more than 3 and that is rare. Turn up and bang - 4-0! Bit of confidence after the second goal and then the football was pretty good! Confidence, positivity and being attacking in nature will work wonders.
I too was very luke warm about signing O'Brian. However, the determination he showed to slide in to tap in his goal on Saturday seemed to reveal qualities we have been lacking in the box. It is interesting to note that only the top two teams in league 1 have conceded fewer goals than us so clearly our goal scoring is our problem. To a great extent I believe the problem has been not creating chances rather than missing chances. Two points that were apparent of late would support this. Firstly Marquis started scoring goals immediately he left. Secondly, Ahadme - without having a great game - had more involvement in the game against Burton Albion than he appeared to have in his league appearances for Pompey. At the other end Walker was somewhat nondescript in the way Ahadme had been for Pompey. As a television watcher it is difficult to judge strikers performance because you do not see the runs they make off the ball. However, it may be fair to say the amount of times they receive the ball the better they have been positioning themselves. In this regard George Hurst seems to get more possessions than any other line leader we have had recently. He has a slightly clumsy touch on the ball but has a high level of involvement. Walker has a good touch but has low involvement. That may be a harsh judgement because, with strikers you have a good game if you score and a bad one if you do not - and you can't score every week. However, I think it will be difficult to continue to start Walker. Harness ,Jacobs, Curtis, and Hurst would all be above him in my pecking order and O'Brian, on Saturday, at least made a case for considering him as an impact player off the bench.
