Final whistle goes, and it's a 1-0 away win for the lads. We played much better in the second half. Good start to the season for Pompey, taking all three points.
Final Match Stats: Home Team: Fleetwood .........Away Team: Portsmouth Possession: Home 55% Away 45% Shots: Home 13 Away 9 Shots on Target: Home 4 Away 1 Corners: Home 6 Away 2 Fouls: Home 7 Away 11
Happy days. Now to see if I can get tickets to Pompey v Crewe if they make it to general sale on Monday.
Oh when too much sport is not enough! The Olympics in full swing ( Sydney is in a similar time zone to Tokyo), and the local rugby league season continuing. Then late at night watching Root move towards his ton - then recording the cricket while watching Pompey on ifollow - and up in the morning to see the Olympic marathon -the armchair is getting a hell of a bashing!!! Firstly the team selection. After a very consistent last season I feel the RB position should have Johnson's to lose and Freeman's to win - not the other way round. I also thought Brown , on the basis of his consistency and his vice captaincy last season, should have got the arm band. Pleased to see Bass get the nod in goal and he kept Pompey in the game in the first half. His distribution was far too heavily weighted towards the long ball. However, watching on television it is hard to see if this was because he had little in the way of options which I suspect was the case. Certainly the Cowley preference for playing the ball out of defense was conspicuous by its absence- particularly in the first half. Of the back four Robertson was the most inclined to play the ball out along the ground but not always with great success. He did appear to position himself well in the penalty area and made good headed clearances. When Tunnicliffe started to asset himself in the second half so did Pompey. He gives us something different in mid field to what we had last season. A lot would appear to rest on his 34 year old shoulders. Ahadme appears to be a player with an easy touch on the ball and who may have the potential to blossom this season. I thought him unlucky to be substituted at a stage in the game when Pompey appeared to be improving. Overall it left me more than a little uncertain where an improvement on last season is going to come from. Pompey looked what they are. A team with a significant number new recruits not used to playing to together at this stage. 'But it is early days and in the mean time 'winning ugly' is no bad thing! PUP
Just endorsing Ides thanks Woopert and extend the thanks to all your between seasons reporting on the transfer market.
