Mark Catlin and Richie Barker under attack

[Earl Grey]

Things aren't a bed of roses as a Pompey player refuses to be interviewed due to concerns about the potential of online assaults through the internet via social media etc. according to Jordan Cross of the Snooze.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompe ... -1-5947813

Partial quote from the above linked piece reproduced below....

It’s an intriguing fact, that when things aren’t going well for Pompey the volume of messages on our forum increases.
There were 172 posts replying to Richie Barker’s reaction to Saturday’s game and 118 to chief executive Mark Catlin’s call for unity on Tuesday. Weighty numbers.
Without wading through them, I can guess the tone of most.

[Pompey1985]

He is right. The amount of flack aimed at the team by delusional fans is unreal.

[Mr Nuts]

He is right. The amount of flack aimed at the team by delusional fans is unreal.

By delusional fans and the manager

[No Shot Sherlock]

He is right. The amount of flack aimed at the team by delusional fans is unreal.

Depends how you define delusional. My guess is that if you'd asked 15,000 Pompey fans before the season started, where they thought the team would sit in the table after 16 games, very few would have predicted we'd be 18th and only 6 points above the relegation places (albeit with a game in hand). And following GW's sacking and RB's arrival, if you'd asked the same 15,000 where we'd be 21 games later I'd guess that even fewer would have predicted things would have gotten worse.

The expectations of many were evidently unrealistic, but you'd have to have been a manic depressive to have predicted we'd be this bad. Someone is to blame, and surely it's better for fans to voice concerns via forums than at Fratton Park?

[Pompey Gary]

He is right. The amount of flack aimed at the team by delusional fans is unreal.

Depends how you define delusional. My guess is that if you'd asked 15,000 Pompey fans before the season started, where they thought the team would sit in the table after 16 games, very few would have predicted we'd be 18th and only 6 points above the relegation places (albeit with a game in hand). And following GW's sacking and RB's arrival, if you'd asked the same 15,000 where we'd be 21 games later I'd guess that even fewer would have predicted things would have gotten worse.

The expectations of many were evidently unrealistic, but you'd have to have been a manic depressive to have predicted we'd be this bad. Someone is to blame, and surely it's better for fans to voice concerns via forums than at Fratton Park?

Tend to agree. After such a swift descent down the leagues the club's aim for this season should have been for stability and to stop the rot. But they've not managed to do even this. At best this season will be judged as massively underwhelming - at worst a total ****** disaster. The only positive is the consistently large crowds at Fratton. RB may prove himself given more time but the jury is still very much out and to me he seems little more than (another) interim manager.

[Pompski!]

To be fair, I think our fans have more right to complain and get irate than any other fans in the league, because the club is OURS. We have paid to employ these people and we want to make sure they get their thumb out of their a**e and work harder.

[Chiswick Blue]

To be fair, I think our fans have more right to complain and get irate than any other fans in the league, because the club is OURS. We have paid to employ these people and we want to make sure they get their thumb out of their a**e and work harder.

Quite right Pompski, the club IS answerable to the fans, here more than anywhere.
When the club survives based on the goodwill of a poor, working class city who many have blindly invested their savings and hard earned wages in to something they love and believe in they have EVERY right to challenge the status quo when things aren't going well, which clearly they aren't.

[BlueinPLtwenty]

It`s true, time to stop the talk and produce. We need three points tomorrow, by hook or by crook.

[Pompey1985]

The problem I have witht the level of flack aimed at the players and manager is that they are trying, its not like they arent putting a shift in. Its just they they arent good enough to meet many fans expectations, which is why i refered to some of our fans as delusional.

why should we be doing better than we are?

How many of the of the fans in the fanbase (not just on here) who demand to know more, demand this and that and use the 'its our club' actually dipped their hands in their pocket? Wasnt there something like 2700 shares issued in the trust.

I just cant find myself getting frustraited with the team and manager when they are clearly trying but just not good enough to live up to expectations.

We have a few good players mixed in with some very poor ones, I dont blame them for where we are in the league.

[BlueinPLtwenty]

[quote="Pompey1985"]The problem I have witht the level of flack aimed at the players and manager is that they are trying, its not like they arent putting a shift in. Its just they they arent good enough to meet many fans expectations, which is why i refered to some of our fans as delusional.

why should we be doing better than we are?

How many of the of the fans in the fan base (not just on here) who demand to know more, demand this and that and use the 'its our club' actually dipped their hands in their pocket? Was n`t there something like 2700 shares issued in the trust.

I just cant find myself getting frustrated with the team and manager when they are clearly trying but just not good enough to live up to expectations.

We have a few good players mixed in with some very poor ones, I do n`t blame them for where we are in the league.[/quote]

I would n`t disagree. This season I have seen more live games than for many a year because of the closeness to PL20. In comparison to the other teams on many occasions we have played well in patches but not taken advantage in terms of goals scored. However when the other team has been on top they seem to be able to find the "net". In my opinion Barker has shored up the defence well but we have not the consistency up front to turn the "draws" into victories. They have identified that and hopefully McCabe is the ingredient to rectify the issue!

[Pompey1985]

I would n`t disagree. This season I have seen more live games than for many a year because of the closeness to PL20. In comparison to the other teams on many occasions we have played well in patches but not taken advantage in terms of goals scored. However when the other team has been on top they seem to be able to find the "net". In my opinion Barker has shored up the defence well but we have not the consistency up front to turn the "draws" into victories. They have identified that and hopefully McCabe is the ingredient to rectify the issue!

I concur, in most of the games I have seen we haven't been dominated or outplayed but we just lack some penetration in the final third. I feel more confident under Barker that we arent going to lose, and I do beleive that given time he will get the right balance but January and the middle of the season isnt the time to be trying to change everything.

[Pompey Penguin]

At the start of the season I predeicted (hoped?) that we would be about halfway at Christmas, and then flirt with the play-offs as the team settled down, before finishing about 8th-10th. I would not call that delusional, and so I do regard the present campaign as both disappointing and frustrating.

However, more importantly, I also thought that by this stage we would have identified a core of a team that would take us forward, and with a few additions give us a chance of promotion in 2014-15. I am very annoyed that we haven't even got this far. I still have no idea of what constitutes our best team, who is likely to be here next season or how we are trying to play. Too many different players have been used in too many positions to no great impact. It looks like we will be starting again with yet another new bunch of players in August and crossing our fingers.

RB talks OK about having a small squad and playing attacking football, but I see no evidence that it is going to happen. I realise that he cannot divulge too much to the public, but some basis for hope would relieve the frustration.

[Selsey Bill]

The problem I have witht the level of flack aimed at the players and manager is that they are trying, its not like they arent putting a shift in. Its just they they arent good enough to meet many fans expectations, which is why i refered to some of our fans as delusional.

why should we be doing better than we are?

How many of the of the fans in the fanbase (not just on here) who demand to know more, demand this and that and use the 'its our club' actually dipped their hands in their pocket? Wasnt there something like 2700 shares issued in the trust.

I just cant find myself getting frustraited with the team and manager when they are clearly trying but just not good enough to live up to expectations.

We have a few good players mixed in with some very poor ones, I dont blame them for where we are in the league.

Good post mate, pretty much agree. I was far more frustrated with our team two or three years ago with the likes of Brian Howard, Dave Kitson, Luke Varney, etc, who were all on much bigger salaries, but who clearly weren't trying. Right now, rather than knocking the team and the manager the supporters should be getting right behind them. Changing the latter now would be a ridiculous decision (IMHO).

[Pompey Gary]

I just cant find myself getting frustraited with the team and manager when they are clearly trying but just not good enough to live up to expectations.

We have a few good players mixed in with some very poor ones, I dont blame them for where we are in the league.

All League 2 clubs have limited finances and high staff turnover. If Pompey began with a moderate to fair budget who then is to blame for putting together a poor group of players, Whittingham or the board for their sentimental appointment of him?

[Pompey1985]

All League 2 clubs have limited finances and high staff turnover. If Pompey began with a moderate to fair budget who then is to blame for putting together a poor group of players, Whittingham or the board for their sentimental appointment of him?

My opinion all along was that in the summer we needed to appoint an established lower league manager (I would include Barker in that category).

It was a huge decision that the board had to take and one which they couldn't win. If we hadn't have appointed guy there would have been uproar from some areas of the fan base due to the perceived improvement in performances at the end of last season. You only have to look at the opinions of some quarters regarding his sacking still.

I do feel that the board made the wrong decision but that's with hindsight, I do however understand why they did what they did. Unfortunately I think its put us at least one season behind where we want to be.