Literally the best way to describe Saturdays performance at Portsmouth. Made a weekend of it with a big group of friends which also included celebrating one of their birthdays on the saturday night. For most of us including myself this was our first time visiting Fratton Park so you can imagine our disappointment when we arrived at the ground to find that they don't sell alcohol in the away end. Nevertheless I went into the game hoping that my beloved Gills could finally break my away duck and also put on a bit of a show in front of my friends who aren't necessarily fans of League One football. Well the first half did wonders for my confidence. Couldn't string a pass together to save our lives and deservedly went 1-0 down from defensively an extremely poor goal. This quickly started an onslaught of attacks from Portsmouth and if it wasn't for the actions of Luke O'Neill denying them a one on one opportunity with a fantastic tackle, it could have been far worse. However with about five minutes to go, Scott Wagstaff got what seemed like his first touch of the game and we managed to utilise him down the right and actually entered the Portsmouth half! We managed to get a corner which came to nothing and normality resumed. Thank god for half time. Half time saw a parade if Portsmouth's amputees team and legends which had a familiar face who decided to walk over to the Gills fans once that Portsmouth legends parade had done. That very legend was a fans favourite at Priestfield and it was Guy Butters who took the time to try and gee us up and get us behind the team. Well I can say it worked as we outsung Portsmouth in the 2nd half and a tactical change by the Welsh Wizard quickly paid off with Wilkinson scoring in the 48th minute. Gills piled forwards in the second half and it looked like both teams had swapped shirts in the 2nd half as we had now become the more effective and dominant side with Portsmouth offering little in return. Lee Martin and Wilkinson especially shone for me in the 2nd half and Martin topped the game off with a fantastic 3rd Gills goal. With that going in it finished the game early and finally meant I broke my away duck. All in all a great game for a neutral and it was such a turnaround in that second half, that it resembled a metaphor of how much Lovell has changed around our fortunes. Let' hope it continues!
