Some of you might have seen it, I was not one of them to be honest, but Sean Davis was on sky sports’ ‘Goals on Sunday’ yesterday. Well, the Pompey man had plenty to say so lets take a look at some of what he actually did say then, and I will add a few of my own thoughts too…
Davis on the realisation we were in a relegation battle
‘When Tony got sacked it sort of helped the players realise that we were in a relegation battle.
‘Obviously since Paul’s come in he’s steadied the ship. The main thing was realising we were in a lot of trouble.’
It is a shame that it did take the departure of Tony Adams for the players to ‘realise we were in trouble’, as we – the fans – could all see this from where we were sitting. I still say that they were probably as much, if not more so to blame, for the position we got ourselves into and for it to take a managers sacking for them to realise is disappointing…
Davis on Manyoo game
‘We still need to finish the season well. Obviously we’ve got a difficult game coming up, but we will got to Manchester United with a lot of confidence after that victory.
‘We’re confident after getting that win, but the manager won’t let us take our foot off the pedal. We just want to finish the season as well as we can and climb up the table.’
Picking up the 3pts against Bolton certainly took the pressure off us in as much as we do not have to ‘fear’ Manyoo as much as we might have as the gap between us and the bottom 3 has stretched. A draw would not have been the end of the world, but certainly a defeat at the weekend would have left us right in the mire – of course we are not quite safe yet, although we are very close to it though.
With the pressure off, and with us having nothing to lose, you never know what might happen on Wednesday. Manyoo probably need to win more than we do now, so the onus is on them. If we can keep it tight and frustrate them at the back for long enough they might start to become frustrated, and that is when our chances could come – the main thing is we break fast and take these! My worry is that Manyoo rested players in their FA cup defeat though, so the ‘big guns’ should return on Wednesday at Old Trafford!
Davis on Hart
‘Since he’s come in we have been hard to beat.
‘I think that was the problem before, I think we were a bit too gung-ho, we conceded a lot of goals but he’s steadied the ship and we don’t let many goals in now.’
Goals win games, but conceding more than you score also means that you lose games too!
Getting the balance right is tough, I have been critical of Paul Hart and to be fair I think that I, and others, have been right in this thinking as we ‘could’ and maybe even ‘should’ have been sitting comfy in a mid table safety secured spot by now?
That said his job was to keep us up at all costs, and it looks like he will do this. ‘Maybe’ he would have a different outlook on things next season if he kept the job? But I am not convinced, and apparently he does not want the job anyway – so all being well he can return to his academy job and someone else with the ability to do the job as well as attract quality, yet affordable talent, can come in…
Davis on Adams
‘It was difficult for Tony coming in because last year was such a fantastic season for Portsmouth.
‘Everyone was on top of their game, we won the FA Cup and finished well in the league and I think this year, the players just haven’t performed as well.
‘We have let some important players go as well; Jermain left, Muntari left and Lass went, so I did feel a little bit sorry for Tony because he came in when things weren’t so good.’
It always was going to be a tough job for Tony Adams, or whoever else came in after Jamie’s Dad, as expectation levels were sky high after the cup success but the departures of key players and lack of finances kept his hands tied – in many ways he was the ideal ‘patsy’ as people had suggested at the time, perhaps that was the case.
I still feel the football played under him was some of the most entertaining I had seen for some time, and entertainment is what you want, but being entertained and losing – or throwing away points – every week is not, so again if he had found the right balance we would have been laughing, sadly he could not…
Clearly the majority of players were not ‘on side’, and this was evident, but as said no matter who had come it getting them on side probably would have been a tough job… In hindsight maybe he was the right man, but at the wrong time?
So, plenty shared by Davis here, and some of my own ramblings too, so what do we make of this guys?
As always, thoughts below please…
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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