Portsmouth (a)

[Bingers]

Did Springett do OK? Does he have potential to impress in a closer match?

How about Fox's cameo, does he have potential to be "like a new signing"?

[Ragdoll Cobbler]

Did Springett do OK? Does he have potential to impress in a closer match?

How about Fox's cameo, does he have potential to be "like a new signing"?

Springett was completely anonymous...

Fox looked decent when he came on, so hopefully he can stay fit between now & the end of the season, as he would then be like a new signing.

[Bingers]

Springett was completely anonymous...

Fox looked decent when he came on, so hopefully he can stay fit between now & the end of the season, as he would then be like a new signing.

Thanks Raggers, I have been looking forward to seeing Fox again as I rated him the few times I have seen him play.

[Carton Lid]

As stated by lots of people, we were very poor, we struggle against any big physical team as Guthrie, pretty much, is the only one in the team that wins any headers. Monthe, for his size, doesn't win much at all. The guy who headed their first wasn't very big but he still had a free header
    Not using this as an excuse but I thought the officials were about as good as we were, I noticed several times Pompey players kicking the ball away when a decision went against them with not a word said. Also does anyone think that if the penalty had been at the other end, would it have been given? of course it wouldn't.
    I hope that JB now gives up on the wing backs system, at Charlton and again yesterday, the opposition wide right players have had so much room and have been the main reason of us conceding goals.

[everbrite]

In defense of Jon Brady

Personally think Terry was right to 'quarantine' the post on 'Jon Brady, the future' as it just gives some the opportunity to speculate and sow disharmony.

After the two early Pompey goals I just wondered if it was all worthwhile after just 16 minutes. However you continue to sit and watch .............in hope! Yet two weeks prior to the Pompey game we were at Charlton experiencing a famous victory; then the Shrewsbury debacle and now Pompey. Still, the Fans remained unbowed and traded courtesies with the nearby oppo fans; if anything they were, as the game progressed and finished - the real heroes of the day. The third goal was a humiliating disaster what on earth were they trying to do!
Much on here about JB's comments on players. To me they were the comments of a frustrated Manager appalled by some of his players decision making and performance. There is no real reason for him to apologize for any lose words which were subjective in any case. Some will seize the opportunity to sow disharmony against the Manager who has given many of us so much pleasure so far this season. I don't think his words were aimed at the Clubs failure to sign two new players as he had himself had expressed the view that a club had priced player/salary to ridiculous levels. More likely he knew some players would be available soon.  I congratulate Cobblers Forever and Speccy(his last comment in particular) for their correct analysis of the situation.

[EB Claret]

As stated by lots of people, we were very poor, we struggle against any big physical team as Guthrie, pretty much, is the only one in the team that wins any headers. Monthe, for his size, doesn't win much at all. The guy who headed their first wasn't very big but he still had a free header
    Not using this as an excuse but I thought the officials were about as good as we were, I noticed several times Pompey players kicking the ball away when a decision went against them with not a word said. Also does anyone think that if the penalty had been at the other end, would it have been given? of course it wouldn't.
    I hope that JB now gives up on the wing backs system, at Charlton and again yesterday, the opposition wide right players have had so much room and have been the main reason of us conceding goals.

For years we have been labelled a big physical side and yet most other teams now seem to be bigger than us.

Every so often we line up with a back five, often as insurance against the 'top teams'. I'm not sure why because we look more secure with a back four. That said I think Pompey's winger (Lane) who scored twice would have caused any system problems.

[Dan]

Only saw him at our place, but Lane is the best player I’ve seen this season by a fair distance.

[Terryfenwickatemyhamster]

Only saw him at our place, but Lane is the best player I’ve seen this season by a fair distance.

He was total class. Way above league one level.  I mentioned as much to Fez at half time.

[guest3649]

Good goal from Leonard, he has a powerful shot in his locker

[Observing]

As stated by lots of people, we were very poor, we struggle against any big physical team as Guthrie, pretty much, is the only one in the team that wins any headers. Monthe, for his size, doesn't win much at all. The guy who headed their first wasn't very big but he still had a free header
    Not using this as an excuse but I thought the officials were about as good as we were, I noticed several times Pompey players kicking the ball away when a decision went against them with not a word said. Also does anyone think that if the penalty had been at the other end, would it have been given? of course it wouldn't.
    I hope that JB now gives up on the wing backs system, at Charlton and again yesterday, the opposition wide right players have had so much room and have been the main reason of us conceding goals.

I agree about the officials and wing backs.

[Dan]

He was total class. Way above league one level.  I mentioned as much to Fez at half time.

Not surprised. When a player scores a brace twice against you in a season, you have to hold your hands up and say fair play 👍🏽

[everbrite]

As stated by lots of people, we were very poor, we struggle against any big physical team as Guthrie, pretty much, is the only one in the team that wins any headers. Monthe, for his size, doesn't win much at all. The guy who headed their first wasn't very big but he still had a free header
    Not using this as an excuse but I thought the officials were about as good as we were, I noticed several times Pompey players kicking the ball away when a decision went against them with not a word said. Also does anyone think that if the penalty had been at the other end, would it have been given? of course it wouldn't.
    I hope that JB now gives up on the wing backs system, at Charlton and again yesterday, the opposition wide right players have had so much room and have been the main reason of us conceding goals.

The first thing I noticed about Pompey when they came out they appeared to be on the small side when compared with Guthrie, Monte etc . Well that was first impression!!

[1971cobbler]

The guy who headed their first wasn't very big but he still had a free header
 

Looking back at the highlights (?) the goalscorer lines up goalside of Manny and is never actually marked at all.

A great delivery in did the rest.

[lordjord]

Went with a few of my family members from down south, enjoyable day but poor performance and result. Just a few observations from me.

Brough struggled massively in the LWB position, was getting caught out every time positionally, no shock the second came from that side as it was only a matter of time.
 
Lintott did well for us last season but either needs a run of games or a loan spell elsewhere (not possible with injuries). His inability to retain the ball at all was really hurting us.

Hondemarck has physical gifts but takes far too many touches every time he gets on the ball which means he constantly gets caught.

Set pieces / aerial threat. This is something we excelled with when Guthrie and Horsfall were our CB pairing, both boxes we were excellent. We have lost that massively since losing Fraser and never seem to have replaced it. Out forwards seem to pose zero threat whereas ours are always being battled.


I think these games A) show the gulf in class between the top teams and us B) show how many of our squad are not really L1 level players anyway. We really need to improve our ball retention (which Sowerby massively helps with) and add some more pace / aerial prowess into the team over the summer.

[Manwork04]

Went with a few of my family members from down south, enjoyable day but poor performance and result. Just a few observations from me.

Brough struggled massively in the LWB position, was getting caught out every time positionally, no shock the second came from that side as it was only a matter of time.
 
Lintott did well for us last season but either needs a run of games or a loan spell elsewhere (not possible with injuries). His inability to retain the ball at all was really hurting us.

Hondemarck has physical gifts but takes far too many touches every time he gets on the ball which means he constantly gets caught.

Set pieces / aerial threat. This is something we excelled with when Guthrie and Horsfall were our CB pairing, both boxes we were excellent. We have lost that massively since losing Fraser and never seem to have replaced it. Out forwards seem to pose zero threat whereas ours are always being battled.


I think these games A) show the gulf in class between the top teams and us B) show how many of our squad are not really L1 level players anyway. We really need to improve our ball retention (which Sowerby massively helps with) and add some more pace / aerial prowess into the team over the summer.

Excellent post at last someone who knows what he’s talking about, Brough is a terrible defender, good going forward but against better teams he gets found out, as I’ve said L2 at best.
Unfortunately Lintott is also a L2 defender and don’t start me on Hondermark.

[Melbourne Cobbler]

Excellent post at last someone who knows what he’s talking about, Brough is a terrible defender, good going forward but against better teams he gets found out, as I’ve said L2 at best.
Unfortunately Lintott is also a L2 defender and don’t start me on Hondermark.

I really like Lintott, I think he has real potential. However, he’s barely made the bench all season. I can’t quite remember but I think this was his first start of the season, away at Portsmouth. Under those circumstances I think any negative assessment is a little harsh. I think you would need a run of 4 or 5 games minimum to gauge a realistic view.

[west stand oap]

It was Lintott's first start, a tough introduction.

[DrillingCobbler]

The way I see it is that the top 6-8 teams in league2 are pretty much on a par with the bottom 6-8 teams in league1. So of course...we have a few players that fall into that category. They are fine when we play the sh1t league1 teams but get 'found out' when we play the top ones. Its all relative.

I think overall Brough has been very decent this season. He's consistent and has an excellent record of avoiding injury. He's a steady player at this level, but will struggle from time to time. No different to McGowan when he plays (as an example).

If you imagine playing football manager for a moment. You've got a 2 million budget. You spend 1.5 million the first X1, then 500k stocking up the squad with average players to make the numbers up. Or if you've got a 4 million budget. You can spend 2 million on the first X1, but more importantly another 2 million on stocking the squad up.

If you've got a 2 million budget, you will do fine with your first choice X1 but as soon as you get injuries, the value of players in the starting line up massively reduces.

On Saturday we were playing away at a team with a budget drawfing ours. That's no bodies fault. We lose money as it is. To compound things further, we had a large number of our better players unavailable to play. So the players that came in were not up to the required standard to compete against our opponents on the day.

Im not sure why there is such a debate about budgets. It really isn't hard too work out that regardless of tactics employed yesterday, we'd have most likely got swatted aside. I could see why he played with wing backs; we didn't have any defensive midifelders deemed fit enough too start. So by playing another centre back (logically thinking about it) would mean that they could take it in turns and push into the midfield zone and try and gain a foothold. It obviously didn't work. But Im pretty confident that if we'd played a back4, we'd have lost by a similar scoreline. By the time Pompey went 2-0 up, they'd carved out several good openings. The goals were poor ones to concede, but if we hadn't of conceded when we did I have no doubt Pompey would have pushed forward more until they got their goals.

The team put out on Saturday...lets be honest...wasn't good enough man to man to cope with Pompey. It showed all over the park. Thats why I (personally) didn't bother going. I could see a thrashing being the only realistic outcome and given our comfortable mid table ranking, decided to save my pennies and watch it on i-follow instead. Fair play to those who travelled. Ill do the same with other games this season, but I just hate the journey down to the south coast and need extra motivation to make it.

Bolton next weekend wont be much less tougher. BUT the players do have a point to prove because they will know that people don't think they are good enough against the top teams. That might add a bit more fire and they *might surprise us. We live in hope!

[Melbourne Cobbler]

I think any negative condemnation of the squad is also unfair. Let’s not lose sight of the sides we have beaten, and beaten well this season. Blackpool, Charlton, Peterborough et all, we are no whipping boys. We are 11th and the table doesn’t lie. Two things, we need need to be at the top of our game to get a result and rightly so, and we need a bit of fortune with regards to fitness. I do believe it’s called sport.

[west stand oap]

Results show we cannot compete with the top teams. We have played 8 games against the top 6 and lost 7 of them the only game we won was Posh at home and on the day a draw would have been a fair result.