Great Expectations.....

[pomp 'n circumstance]

....the plaudits flow, the crowds return, the manager delivers! So what can possibly go wrong? Might as well start engraving our name of the Division 2 Championship Cup now!

I worry about all this - the pressure game is a way of producing progressive burn out and in all honesty we are barely seeing out 90 minutes at this tempo. Come the winter months and grounds that sap the energy from the legs and doubt begins to filter through. By now opposition managers know the score when playing Pompey and rumble ways of coping with it and there are other good managers in this division with cunning plans. On the surface, we have a very good team in this Division, but will they last the course?

You'd have to say the jury is out.....at the moment!

[richisbradders]

I worry about all this - the pressure game is a way of producing progressive burn out and in all honesty we are barely seeing out 90 minutes at this tempo. Come the winter months and grounds that sap the energy from the legs and doubt begins to filter through.

To be fair against Morecambe we were still playing and scoring in the 95th minute. It was the poor reaction to letting in the first goal which was more of the worry.

[pompeygunner]

....the plaudits flow, the crowds return, the manager delivers! So what can possibly go wrong? Might as well start engraving our name of the Division 2 Championship Cup now!

I worry about all this - the pressure game is a way of producing progressive burn out and in all honesty we are barely seeing out 90 minutes at this tempo. Come the winter months and grounds that sap the energy from the legs and doubt begins to filter through. By now opposition managers know the score when playing Pompey and rumble ways of coping with it and there are other good managers in this division with cunning plans. On the surface, we have a very good team in this Division, but will they last the course?

You'd have to say the jury is out.....at the moment!

Well his Chesterfield team managed it over a whole season...just a thought loike.

[Pompey Dave]

It seems to me he currently has nearly two teams who can both do it so good options to rest players.

[Selsey Bill]

....the plaudits flow, the crowds return, the manager delivers! So what can possibly go wrong? Might as well start engraving our name of the Division 2 Championship Cup now!

I worry about all this - the pressure game is a way of producing progressive burn out and in all honesty we are barely seeing out 90 minutes at this tempo. Come the winter months and grounds that sap the energy from the legs and doubt begins to filter through. By now opposition managers know the score when playing Pompey and rumble ways of coping with it and there are other good managers in this division with cunning plans. On the surface, we have a very good team in this Division, but will they last the course?

You'd have to say the jury is out.....at the moment!

The jury may well be out, but it's about to come back in and the decision will be a unanimous one.

[Miss Tickle's bottom]

...in all honesty we are barely seeing out 90 minutes at this tempo.

What a weird use of the word 'honesty'!

[Milkins]

[Milkins]

...in all honesty we are barely seeing out 90 minutes at this tempo.

What a weird use of the word 'honesty'!

Not wholly unexpected though.

[Portchester PFC]

....the plaudits flow, the crowds return, the manager delivers! So what can possibly go wrong? Might as well start engraving our name of the Division 2 Championship Cup now!

I worry about all this - the pressure game is a way of producing progressive burn out and in all honesty we are barely seeing out 90 minutes at this tempo. Come the winter months and grounds that sap the energy from the legs and doubt begins to filter through. By now opposition managers know the score when playing Pompey and rumble ways of coping with it and there are other good managers in this division with cunning plans. On the surface, we have a very good team in this Division, but will they last the course?

You'd have to say the jury is out.....at the moment!

Its not only our players that will be playing on heavy pitches through the winter months, the opposition do as well.

You are right about opposition managers rumbling our ways but then that is for Captain Cook to change things around a bit, that will be the true test of him as a league winning manager.

Personally, the last two/three seasons i have been thoroughly depressed at this stage by whats been offered up, so i am going to remain buoyant about the current campaign until performances show otherwise !

[Pompey Penguin]

When we last won a promotion (2002-03), the following players were brought in over the course of the season, and had a significant impact (there were a few others). Lassina Diabate, Lee Bradbury, Steve Stone, Yakubu, Gianluca Festa, Tim Sherwood. The last four were first choice over the second half of the season at least.

The point being, that if we are in a serious position to get promoted after Christmas, then I am sure funds will be available for a couple of signings if players are beginning to look tired. It would be unexpected if the team against Northampton in May is anything like that against D&R in August.