Never a red card. Wasn't a 'dangerous' tackle and the guy fouled was never going to have an obvious scoring opportunities going away from goal. Saying that the ref gave us some soft fouls late on. Must have felt bad.
Player Ratings Jon McLaughlin, 7/10: Authoritative in dealing with crosses and decisive in everything he did. Luke O’Nien, 7/10: Battled well and provided vital energy to drive Sunderland forward. Tom Flanagan, 5/10: Looked nervous all night, gave away the ball throughout. Alim Ozturk, 6/10: Was playing well prior to being absurdly red-carded for a challenge that any decent ref would award a yellow card for. Bryan Oviedo, 7/10: Recovered from a slow start to play a vital role in Sunderland’s goal. Lee Cattermole, 6/10: An 8/10 without the ball and 4/10 with it. Max Power, 5/10: Really poor in an attacking sense, and far too passive in his midfield battles. George Honeyman, 6/10: Improved after half-time playing a role Sunderland’s best attacking sequences. Lewis Morgan, 4/10: Fell way short of the high standards he’s set for himself over the past month. Lynden Gooch, 7/10: Surprisingly effective creating chances and showcasing confidence on a huge occasion where others faltered. Charlie Wyke, 6/10: Recovered from a poor start to create chaos in the Portsmouth area. (SUB) Chris Maguire, 7/10: What a performance! His volley was majestic! (SUB) Jimmy Dunne 6/10: Saved a potential goal with his deflection on Evans’ free-kick. Man of the Match: Luke O’Nien
Strange how they left it late to say Mcgeady was out of the squad a ploy for to keep us going ? i was on my way to the game at the time. That ref was a get for 90 mins, they "bought" him early on and continued, Ross has lost the plot, humping long balls every time like when Defoe was here there was always 3-4 players around Wyke and is too weak. Another thing is these players pass backwards and put pressure on our defence, give them the frigging worry bad performance but 1-0, but that 2nd leg looks dodgy. 26,000 them 2 defeats has cost us a lot Pompey are not as good as December mind you neither are we
We need a centre forward too. Wyke worked hard tonight but he was rarely a threat and he looks like he has no idea of how to anticipate where the ball is going to be.
Must say watching the replay the Ref had the Red card out instantly he didn't give himself any thinking time, unless he was certain it was a red card, and if he did he was the only one in the ground who thought so. we've got to appeal and stand a good chance of having it recinded.
5 for Flanagan? **** me. We kept a clean sheet, he played 90 mins and helped Dunne settle. Won important tackles and headers. He was a stand out player tonight.
I agree it was a bit harsh on the lad from Roker Report. They probably picked up on his first half performance where his distribution was poor, but like others, he was much improved second half so I would have given him a 7
I hope that the 14,000 or so that didn’t bother there arses supporting the team don’t whine about Wembley tickets if we get there. With the huge take up of season card holders, and 2,000 Pompey fans, there were about 4,500 folk who went on top and they should be absolutely assured of a seat at Wembley. As for the game, was as expected, tight, even, a great goal and a ****ing joke of a red. We were pressing on at that point, and the fact we had to reign it in could be costly. Win is a win and onwards to a nervy night to see who loses to Charlton in the final
Even without those missing fans the singing and support was fantastic, helped by most of the Roker standing all game and being well oiled due to the kick off time. I don't get to many home games these days but last night was loads better than the record crowd on Boxing Day. It certainly cheered me up
Oh aye, no qualms about the noise and support inside mate, just a bit taken aback at the lack of heads. 6,000 below even the season average is bewildering ain’t it? I was in bed asleep by 11 due to the kick off time/day drinks haha.
Good post mate but your point about the attendance does not take into account of the circumstances surrounding the game, Its great that we have so many die hards, more than our fair share probably, but with another trip to Wembley on the cards,many may have thought twice about last nights game and like me are sick of the sight of Pompey tbh.
Why circumstances though mate? Saturday evening? Plenty of notice? One off game? Dates for playoffs published several months in advance? I can understand certain things, sure I can, but I can’t comprehend that 6,000 off the season average and 14,000 of capacity couldn’t attend football, on a Saturday, the day of football. I bet the bars were rammed with folk gladly spending £30 on pints etc watching on Sky.
No doubt in my mind that he got the ball before the man. The red card will be overturned. The red card has made the return leg much more difficult than it needed to be, because we were bossing the game up to that point and were likely to score again with the movement and drive of Maguire.
Agree 100% mate, we had real momentum and it coming so soon after the goal was a kick in the bollocks. Worth mentioning that we were decent, pretty comfortable throughout even if they did have us pegged early doors. I’d like to see the save their keeper made from the header again, think it was George who hit it. Happened so quick looked a wonder save.
It smashed the keeper in the face and went over. Good goalkeeping for getting in position and blocking the goal. Even if it was his fat head.
It looked it but it smacked him in the face haha. Credit to him for having a head and standing where the ball happened to go.
Haha. It’s just coming back to me now I was thinking ‘how the **** has he saved that up there’. In the grill makes sense.
