Connolly was fouled twice in the box - first was a definite penalty, not given - second was maybe a penalty, not given. Connolly was angry and had an off the ball scuffle with a Chesterfield player and got the red card. It was seen by the linesman. We did so well right up until the last few minutes. Basically the ref lost us the game.
We did well considering the handicap we operated under for most of the game - though, it doesn't seem at the moment that anyone is quite sure why Connolly was sent off, that is, what exactly he did, silly of him if he did get involved in some scuffle off the ball - and considering the fact that we should have had at least one penalty if not two, and we were still competitive even after the sending off, I think we would have had a good chance of winning this if the sides were even for the whole 90+minutes. And now I hope Guy can sort things out because I dont want to be saying that or something similar most of the season like I have the last two or so seasons. Regardless, I think Bradley is turning out to be our best signing and I've been impressed with him every game.
Despite the final score - we sounded good for 86 minutes. Sonny Bradley is really finding his feet in the team. His long run was so exciting. Ricky Holmes did extremely well as well.
2 players sent off in 5 games. Well played Portsmouth, well played. Just curious as to how much lower we can actually sink. I suppose we should be happy we actually have a ****ing team in existence but thats about as good as we're gonna get; you can forget about competing and actually winning games, and as for promotion.... ahahaa. Skril premier for us next year then Happy days.
Just from 2 people who were at the game and actually saw the Connolly incident. Hird chased Connolly down the pitch, the physio told Hird to stay down and put him in the recovery position after Connolly gave him a slap and he went down poleaxed. This was immediately after Connolly was brought down twice in the area. Yes, he should have kept his temper, but we ask for passion and that's what you get. Anyway - give it time! This is a marathon, not a sprint. Pompey fans keep the faith!
Can't really comment as I didn't see it, but surely a slap isn't necessarily a red card, it depends on intent and how hard it was, if it was just a light tap, then surely that should be yellow. But maybe it was hard. Conference South, here we come! Farnborough v Portsmouth, the battle of the clubs royally screwed over by previous owners!
Just got back from the game, and i am gutted. I thought we played well today against supposedly one of the better teams in the league, and we were very unlucky! I was glad to see Sullivan back in goal, i think we look safer with him goal, has more presence than Smith, best out of a bad bunch i suppose! Also glad Holmes got a start ahead of Wallace, thought he played well! The referee had a shocker, we should have had at least 2 penalties, i didn't see the sending off but it really did cost us the game, connolly should know better than that. Another positive was Sonny Bradley, deserved man of the match today, and was unlucky not to score! One thing that really annoyed me was that Ertl walked straight back into the team, apart from the fact that he is a shocking footballer, and cost us the oxford game, Padovani has been one of our best players so far this season for me! Anyway keep the faith, our luck has surely got to change soon, we outplayed one of the promotion contenders for most of the game with 10 men, i have no doubt we will be around the play offs at the end of the season!
Couldn't bring myself to comment until I had calmed down. John Sullivan is the worst goalkeeper I have ever seen in a Pompey shirt - he is utter crap (yes, even compared to Yoshi Kawaguchi & Kostas Chalkias the clown !). Phil Smith is the better of the two keepers, at least he reads the speed and trajectory of the ball, rather than commence his dive to stop a shot seconds too late on virtually every occasion...... I'd rather see us give the lad Nathan Ashmore from Gosport Borough a run out to see what he can do - he couldn't be any worse, could he ? Other than that rant, Ertl is playing poorly, so why drop Padovani, our best central midfielder ? We desperately missed Marcos Painter at left back. Danny East doesn't look comfortable playing there, which is fair enough as he is right footed. Patrick Agyemang was fouled by the Chesterfield defence almost every time he tried to win or control the ball - did he get awarded a free kick ? Fat chance ! What a lousy referee, and pathetic linesman running the line by the South Stand. He failed to see any foul on a Pompey player. Other teams we have played so far this season, have been very aggressive/dirty. We now need to go down to Devon, and beat Torquay on Tuesday evening - nothing else will do.
Go to agree with PTID & Woop on a few points.....firstly the ref did have an absolute nightmare - he never seemed to know what was going on and I think there were 3 good penalty shouts - two were stonewall and one definitely led to Connolly losing his rag.....he also waved play on when Aygyemang was fouled but stayed on his feet with one defender to beat then blew his whistle for a free kick. Footballing wise when we move the ball with a bit of pace we look really dangerous but too often we slow it down...we played well in patches - oddly better with 10 men than 11....we certainly defended really well with 10. I think Ertl had a really poor game - for a big bloke he doesn't seem to like jumping to head the ball....and today seemed to be off the pace for most of the first half - he improved second half. I really like Holmes, fabulous work rate and it seemed to be him always pressing the ball. And yes re Padovani - I think he looks a class player - almost too good for League two so get him on the pitch - albeit down to 10 men possibly not where he'd get the chance to shine. Chesterfield were not a hoof it team and played decent football in patches however I think they know they won today because of a poor ref and a team that was out on it's feet in the last 5 mins....the lack of pressing for the cross that lead to the goal said it all. Finally Sonny Bradley's mazy run deserved a goal......it was a great bit of close control and pace.
Ok. The Football League show shed no light on the Connolly incident so I'm watching SkySports News to see if that shows something, and if not I'll just have to wait for the next day or so an hope we get some clarification on what exactly he did. Nope, Sky sheds no light on it either. Would be nice if we had a statement from the Referee or Linesman about why they made the decision to send him off.
Nothing but one of those stupid rumours that regularly does the rounds. Guy confirmed there was nothing to the rumour.
Guy also confirmed that he wasn't looking to bring in any other goalkeepers.... please log in to view this image
But at least Sullivan can catch a cross, and doesn't get lobbed from 30 yards every game he plays, its no surprise Smith has made a career out of being 2nd/3rd choice keeper. Anyway i think ultimately they are both awful keepers, probably the worst I have seen, and if whittingham can't see this then it is very worrying!
I'm not joking when I say that even Alan Knight would be a better choice in goal, than those two berks. If only Jamo wanted to return from Iceland to the Football League............
Hmm not sure about that one Woopert, Jamo just stands still , doesn't move and lets the ball go past him on BT Sports Premiership programme. Not much change there then!
Bring back Jamo on loan. The Icelandic football season must surely be over soon. Not gonna happen though, Guy seems to think Sullivan and Smith are fine.
