Luton

[Berkshire Blue]

A capacity crowd, only Lowe and Donohue not fit to play, and a decent side as opposition - can't wait!

For me any kind of win, scrappy, lucky or whatever, would be just fine. Shame about Jamal as I think we will miss him.

[Milton End]

Greetings from Botswana where I’m currently on holiday. Will try to listen on ifollow.

Fingers crossed for a win - even if it’s scrappy.

PUP

[Pompey Penguin]

As with all teams in early season games, it will depend on how the teams settle with new players and maybe new systems. I think Luton will finish top half, and will give us a good, fair game. I too would settle for a win of any kind, but suspect that neither team will be overly disappointed with a "played well draw".

[New Forester]

Guards strike tomorrow . Check temporary time table. I did. Wouldn't get back to my village until 8.15pm. Booked a parking space near the ground through Just Park. Will drive over for the first time in years. Back in the 60s I lived a few yards from the start of the Eastern Road. I'll take that route in again off the A27. Hopefully it won't be too chaotic.

[Berkshire Blue]

Will it be Gareth Evans in place of Jamal today? One would assume so, unless a different cunning plan is revealed! Louis Dennis or Adam May anyone?

[PakefieldBlue]

Maybe this is going to be the fairytale season for Chaplin. Almost leaves and then goes on to score 15 goals in a promotion season - a la Naismith.

For me I think KJ will move Curtis to left midfield today with Chaplin upfront with Pitman.

[VFTH]

Kenny Jackett hands competitive debuts to four of his summer signings.

Craig MacGillivray, Lee Brown, Tom Naylor and Ronan Curtis are all thrown straight into the side to face Luton on the opening day of the 2018/19 campaign.

There is also a surprise start for Jamal Lowe, who was expected to miss out with an ankle problem.

And Dion Donohue has recovered enough from illness to take his place on the bench.

Pompey: MacGillivray; Thompson, Whatmough, Clarke, Brown; Lowe, Walkes, Naylor, Haunstrup; Pitman (c), Curtis
Subs: McGee, Burgess, Donohue, Close, Evans, Chaplin, Hawkins

[yahoodlums]

Just back from the game.

We got very lucky today.

Pretty dire stuff from us to be honest. Hit and hope football, hardly any ball retention. Long ball after long ball (to no-one). The midfield virtually non existent. Yikes, I really hope this is not the shape of things to come.

That said, three points and I actually got to see a game. Back to HK on Tuesday.

[Pompey1985]

Just back from the game.

We got very lucky today.

Pretty dire stuff from us to be honest. Hit and hope football, hardly any ball retention. Long ball after long ball (to no-one). The midfield virtually non existent. Yikes, I really hope this is not the shape of things to come.

That said, three points and I actually got to see a game. Back to HK on Tuesday.

I really hoped to hear we had progressed from last season from what I heard on iplayer and what you and my spies have reported back it sounds like we haven't really progressed from the lump it football of last season - and we still seemingly seemed less fit than the opposition.

[New Forester]

It’s called winning ugly. Luton played well but didn’t take their chances. Pompey took the one clear chance they created.
I enjoyed the match from my new seat in Row K NLE. I hope the fans in direct sunlight survived.

[Earl Grey]

Can't remember being so downbeat after winning. That was embarrassing. We looked like a bunch of strangers.

[Portchester PFC]

We were chatting to a bunch of Luton fans in the Red, White and Blue afterwards and they were absolutely gobsmacked as to how they lost that game, and we struggled to disagree with them !

They completely dominated the midfield and we seemed clueless, nice work but Curtis for the goal, for me Curtis was the MOTM.

Shocking game of football but at the end of the day the papers show a win and clean sheet.

[Berkshire Blue]

How many times last season did we play pretty well and then either drew or lost games? As NF said it is called winning ugly and it often separates the promotion places from mid table.

I thought that the defence played okay yesterday, and the midfield improved when Close came on, as Walkes seemed to be tiring. jamal played okay without getting much service, and looked absolutely exhausted after his excellent long dribble upfield near the end. Pitman suffered with us constantly pumping high balls upfield which their defenders dealt with easily. I thought that Curtis had an excellent first game, a real nuisance for their defence and some nice touches.

I thought that Luton were very good in midfield and dominated there for most of the game. I was very impressed by their number 17 (Mpanzu?), who pulled all the strings going forward - we could do with someone similar - either a loan or Dennis when he is fully up to speed?

[rumourmonger]

Well that was poor stuff for a season opener and based on that Kenny has got his work cut out to improve things . Our new keeper showed what a good shot stopper he is . Time will tell on his all round game. Our defence was our best feature . Both full backs looked steady enough and Whatmough and Clarke were outstanding in the middle. Burgess looked up for it when he replaced Thompson as well. Midfield was our problem area Despite his goal Lowe was definitely not 100% fit and it was a shame that other substitutions meant he had to stay out there for the full game. Walkes was very quiet and I'm not sure what exactly Naylor brings to the table that we didn't already have in Rose and Close. Haunstrup , for all his effort , is not a midfielder and should not be playing there. Ben Close improved things a bit when he came on but we were second best to Luton in there for the majority of the game. Up front Pitman was strangely off colour and replaced at half time by Hawkins. To quote Stan Laurel "I'm sorry Olly " but yesterday you looked like a Sunday League player out there. Barely winning a header and when he did , he nodded it to where a Pompey player wasn't. He seemed more concerned about trying to demonstrate how much he was being pushed and held rather than trying to impose himself on their defender. Ronan Curtis on the other hand looks a find. He's raw and still learning but he's positive , looks to take people on and make things happen as he did very well for the only goal of the game. All in all we were lucky. I know it's supposed to be a sign of a good team if you win when playing badly but surely we can't play that badly and win for much longer. Nathan Jones will have been doing his best Steve Cotterill impression last night . " I don't know how we lost that game"

[Selsey Bill]

Well that was poor stuff for a season opener and based on that Kenny has got his work cut out to improve things . Our new keeper showed what a good shot stopper he is . Time will tell on his all round game. Our defence was our best feature . Both full backs looked steady enough and Whatmough and Clarke were outstanding in the middle. Burgess looked up for it when he replaced Thompson as well. Midfield was our problem area Despite his goal Lowe was definitely not 100% fit and it was a shame that other substitutions meant he had to stay out there for the full game. Walkes was very quiet and I'm not sure what exactly Naylor brings to the table that we didn't already have in Rose and Close. Haunstrup , for all his effort , is not a midfielder and should not be playing there. Ben Close improved things a bit when he came on but we were second best to Luton in there for the majority of the game. Up front Pitman was strangely off colour and replaced at half time by Hawkins. To quote Stan Laurel "I'm sorry Olly " but yesterday you looked like a Sunday League player out there. Barely winning a header and when he did , he nodded it to where a Pompey player wasn't. He seemed more concerned about trying to demonstrate how much he was being pushed anyd held rather than trying to impose himself on their defender. Ronan Curtis on the other hand looks a find. He's raw and still learning but he's positive , looks to take people on and make things happen as he did very well for the only goal of the game. All in all we were lucky. I know it's supposed to be a sign of a good team if you win when playing badly but surely we can't play that badly and win for much longer. Nathan Jones will have been doing his best Steve Cotterill impression last night . " I don't know how we lost that game"

That completely sums up my thoughts! How on earth we won that game is beyond me, but we did!
I'm worried!