B from the G

[Locky_McLockface]

Well, we picked a cracking game for our first in a while!

I've seen many on Twitter say that we played awfully in the first half. I disagree. Certainly, Cambridge had the better chances early on, but we still moved the ball around very well indeed, we played the better football. The ref had a decent game, certainly much better than the one at SheffW, but he bottled a big decision after a minute. Lowery was taken late, high and fast. Had the challenge happened 15 minutes into the game, the player (O'Neill) would have been sent off. He was only carded, and went on to take the corner from which they scored. I actually thought Cambridge were a nasty team, there were several off-ball fouls which went unpunished, and it's telling that 3 of theirs were booked and none of ours. I thought their goalkeeper had a poor game, responsible for 3 of our goals -- should have claimed the cross from which we equalised, fumbled the cross to allow Curtis to poke home, and let Crackers' shot slip underneath him.

Griffiths: 9 Made a couple of excellent saves at 0-0, and more later on.
Rafferty: 8 Very solid in defence and contributed well going forwards
Morrison: 9 Can only think of one error (which led to their first chance), other than that, didn't miss a thing.
Raggett: 9 Solid in defence, and got the assist for our equaliser.
Ogilvie: 8 A bit at fault for the cross from which they got the corner from which they scored, but made amends with a well taken goal.
Dale: 8 Perhaps a little lightweight, but actually looks to take on the defender and get crosses in. An excellent shot from distance at 1-1, narrowly high and wide.
Lowery: 9 Good grief that man is small, but his ball skills are immense. An excellent game.
Pack: 11 Is this the player we've been missing since Michael Doyle left? No. This is the man we've been missing since Lassana Diarra left. The lynchpin of everything, calm, collected, knows when to play forward, and when to play backward. A very cheeky shoulder pass in the build up to the 3rd, and if only that lob from the halfway line had come down a bit quicker, he'd have been worth 12/10.
Curtis: 8 Why are people moaning about this man? He's as committed to the cause as he's always been. No moaning, no stroppiness. Do not sell this player. Ever.
Scarlett: 8 Chases everything, like he's still playing sunday league. A couple of excellent dribbles that scared the CU defence. He just needs a bit more confidence to take a shot -- there were a couple of times where it seemed like he was trying to do too much, get too close to goal before shooting. Needs a goal, even if it's off his arris, to get that confidence. A future England star, for sure.
Bishop: 8 Magic Hat on full display. And we only paid £500K for him. Bargain of the millenium.

Subs
Thompson: 7 Broke up play well
Jacobs: 7 Scored
Hackett: 6 Assisted, had a chance for a counter-attack late on, but ran straight at both of their covering midfielders.
PIggott: 6 In fairness, we were well on top by the time he came on, so we'd started to take our foot off the pedal by that time.
Mingi: 5 Barely had time to touch the ball.

[PeteM]

Thanks Locky, that made for great reading!

[New Forester]

I listened on Solent and watched extended highlights. Thanks for the insights not too obvious from the other two sources. Looking forward to being at Saturday's match. Quite a lot of empty seats - no doubt they include season ticket holders in stats regardless of attendance?

[FatBlueAde]

Cheers for that Lovely, really appreciate these BFGs, add colour to the commentary

[Pompey55]

I listened on Solent and watched extended highlights. Thanks for the insights not too obvious from the other two sources. Looking forward to being at Saturday's match. Quite a lot of empty seats - no doubt they include season ticket holders in stats regardless of attendance?

I think you must be right about including season ticket holders in the stats as the Fratton. End was a lot less busy than the previous game with a pretty much similar attendance figure

[Jack_Tinn]

edited - to mostly add in two News links -

likewise it was my first game in a while. I'd agree with everything in your summary with perhaps the following observations of my own:

I heard many people say on the way out that that was the best Pompey had played since the Premiership days. Certainly true for me but the people saying it sounded like they were season ticket holders;

Given Bishop's ability to head the ball there were alot of play directed (long ball) to him to flick on and I thought that although this was sometimes effective this played to Cambridge's strengths and when we got the ball down and moved it quickly then this cut their defence open alot more effectively. This change happened more profoundly in the 2nd half and the 4th goal was an example of Pompey playing for the openings with speed of pass and movement rather than trying the more direct route. Wasn't sure it was a coaching/tactical decision more that the team just worked it out and started to play;

thought every player - even the subs - looked solid and gave an excellent performance and contributed to the win. Yes, even Hackett with the cross for Oglivie's goal.

Griffiths made a few decent saves particularly the 1-1 shot stop and the reflex save which resulted in the corner that they scored from. Encouraging that he looks so good at shot stopping and he has the size to come and collect crosses. Needs to work on his kicking game and his overall command but very encouraging for someone so young in such a key position.

Cambridge came to rough up Pompey. DC played a 5'8" 10 stone midfielder and you feared for his safety after that red card eligible assault in the opening minutes. More than one Pompey player took a flying elbow to the head during the game in challenges too. With VAR I think Cambridge would have finished with 9 men. Having that said that at the end of 90mins Pompey had battered them into submission - this was achieved inmho because Pompey had shown more desire overall to win the game. Oglivie driving into score the 4th and Raggett getting the pull back for Bishop to tap in the equaliser are my examples of that desire. Brilliant work by both defenders - they just wanted it more!!

Scarlett does the unconventional thing at times - could have had a penalty through just attempting something as a forward that 99% wouldn't. He could be another player like Hirst insofar as he does not score too many in the first 6 months of his loan and then can't stop scoring in the second 6 months. When he works out how to score at L1 level then look out ....you could see the fear in the Cambridge's defenders body language when he picked up the ball and moved towards goal. As he develops confidence and experience he is going to make a few defenders look stupid and win quite a few penalties. He is a livewire - glad he is playing for Pompey (and not against us!)

Cambridge, decent side, organised, some quality, play to their strengths and Ironside is a handful of a no.9. I can see them turning Saints over next week at Cambridge in the Cup if Saints don't realise how much desire you need to beat them. Cambridge will be a top 10 team in L1 this year if they keep playing as they did last night. This 4-1 was closer to a 2-1 win for Pompey or 1-1- than it may look on paper....if the Cambridge keeper does not have a howler. He was at fault imho for Pompey's first three goals. "1-0 and you f'd it up" was entirely accurate by the Pompey crowd. https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/foot ... ng-3808949 Cambridge Manager seems to agree with my view (I wrote the above before seeing this honest guv')

Oluwayemi - back up keeper at half time is worth a watch. He was pinging 40y passes to Piggott and Swanson and was controlling strongly hit return passes effortlessly with one touch control - silky smooth skills and looked like he easily could play an outfield position. impressive and surprisingly entertaining.

I thought Tracey - the Cambridge no.18 - who was playing down the left wing for much of the game was half decent and fitted the profile of what DC says he wants in a young, pacey, powerful attacking winger/striker. I see that the News are speculating that Pompey and DC agree with me and that the transfer team were engaged in talks with their counterparts after the game about Tracey and/or Harvey Knibbs. https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/foot ... ls-3809367 Harvey was the prospect that caught the eye to me and was causing to be a handful on occasions for Rafferty.

If anyone beats Marlon Pack to the player of the season trophy - looking at you Bishop in particular - then they have had one hell of a season. Top player who marshals Pompey currently and has a cunning array of passes and style of play that made me believe on more than one occasion that he was passing in one direction to find that he has flicked his ankle at the last minute and actually passed in the completely opposite direction. I would like to see him take a penalty because this ability would be a nightmare for keepers trying to read which way he was going to put the ball.

Never seen FP looking so nice - in the NS with wide access ways, new kiosks location in positions that made sense with quick service, decent sign posting, clean and new seating with decent leg room.... Well done to the owners and operational staff on a job well done.

[Selsey Fan]

I listened on Solent and watched extended highlights. Thanks for the insights not too obvious from the other two sources. Looking forward to being at Saturday's match. Quite a lot of empty seats - no doubt they include season ticket holders in stats regardless of attendance?

We discussed this last season and it was confirmed that all clubs quote their attendance based on seats sold, not attendees; therefore yes the attendance of circa 17,700 will have included all season ticket holders who were not present (I was and thoroughly enjoyed our performance last night)

Ian

[Jack_Tinn]

I listened on Solent and watched extended highlights. Thanks for the insights not too obvious from the other two sources. Looking forward to being at Saturday's match. Quite a lot of empty seats - no doubt they include season ticket holders in stats regardless of attendance?

We discussed this last season and it was confirmed that all clubs quote their attendance based on seats sold, not attendees; therefore yes the attendance of circa 17,700 will have included all season ticket holders who were not present (I was and thoroughly enjoyed our performance last night)

Ian

agreed - but I didn't see many (can't remember seeing any in fact) empty seats in the NSL or Upper or Southstand from my view point. I'd have thought it can't have been far off 17k in the ground from the declared attn of 17,400 odd. Really good atmosphere in the ground however many were actually there.

[Locky_McLockface]

Cheers for that Lovely, really appreciate these BFGs, add colour to the commentary

You're welcome, darling.

[jam tomorrow]

Thanks to all for your valuable contribution and filling the details for people like me who cannot attend games, it really gives me a good insight on the status of the team. Apparently it took time for us to find our rhythm in the game which the U’s took advantage of but we slowly got there. This explains why their fans thought they were on top I think we found the formula to score and like at the Owls we tore them apart in the space of 15 minutes.This is very encouraging as if we can find our rhythm early and consistently through the game we could go far. Hopefully by the time we play the stronger teams DC will have them sorted he has the tools to do so.

[FatBlueAde]

Cheers for that Lovely, really appreciate these BFGs, add colour to the commentary

You're welcome, darling.

Just spotted that , can't edit the bl**dy thing!

Still, you'll always be lovely to me.

[Locky_McLockface]

Thanks to all for your valuable contribution and filling the details for people like me who cannot attend games, it really gives me a good insight on the status of the team. Apparently it took time for us to find our rhythm in the game which the U’s took advantage of but we slowly got there. This explains why their fans thought they were on top I think we found the formula to score and like at the Owls we tore them apart in the space of 15 minutes.This is very encouraging as if we can find our rhythm early and consistently through the game we could go far. Hopefully by the time we play the stronger teams DC will have them sorted he has the tools to do so.

They certainly had the better chances before they scored, we really only had a scuffed effort by Ronan, but we were always playing the better football. Even when they scored, the entire crowd knew it was only a matter of time before we equalised, and so we didn't get on the players' backs.

[Locky_McLockface]

Cheers for that Lovely, really appreciate these BFGs, add colour to the commentary

You're welcome, darling.

Just spotted that , can't edit the bl**dy thing!

Still, you'll always be lovely to me.

You're making me blush.

[NSRailings]

I listened on Solent and watched extended highlights. Thanks for the insights not too obvious from the other two sources. Looking forward to being at Saturday's match. Quite a lot of empty seats - no doubt they include season ticket holders in stats regardless of attendance?

We discussed this last season and it was confirmed that all clubs quote their attendance based on seats sold, not attendees; therefore yes the attendance of circa 17,700 will have included all season ticket holders who were not present (I was and thoroughly enjoyed our performance last night)

Ian

I'd like to see the actual attendance out of interest. Plan to go this Saturday and can't wait.

[Selsey Bill]

So refreshing to read a thread with no negativity in it. This MB has been doing my head in recently, but the doom mongers seem to have gone very quiet - and long may it continue as it was so draining.