Hagar is horrible for ‘pool

On a gloriously sunny afternoon, Pompey stole the 3 points deep into stoppage time with a stunner from their very on Viking warrior, he swivelled in a volley into the top corner to settle a match that looked destined for a goaless stalemate.

Pompey went with 1 up front in Benjani, not popular amongst the crowd I must admit, the management will say it’s 4-3-3, but the supporters are not stupid.

The game to be fair was a turgid affair, Blackpool had a couple of good opportunities to pinch the lead, both chances were at the feet of Matt Philips, first off Gary Taylor-Fletcher, who resembles someones Dad who has just strolled on the pitch, picked out a lovely pass, the finish though was straight at Ashdown, moments later Phillips did the donkey work and this time his namesake fired well wide.

Joel Ward came closest for Pompey in the half, a Halford long throw was met by forehead but flew just wide.

Blackpool were screaming for a red card, Norris getting accused of an elbow, Evatt was the stricken man, but from my seat dead in line with the incident, Norris headed the ball and just caught Evatt as he twisted, no malice seemed evident whatsoever.

Second half and Pompey still looked woefully short of ideas, the possesion was fine but a lack of a cutting edge stuck out for all to see, Benjani was running round like a loon, without a partner though, every time he flicked on a header there was no recipitent to recieve it.

Blackpool then had a shout for a penalty, Pearce flung himself to block a fierce shot from Evatt, if you were clad in orange it was a stonewall penalty, if you preferred blue it was nothing short of a fantastic bit of putting your body on the line.

Pompey finally decided to up the ante in the last ten minutes, Huselkepp gave one glimpse of what was to come by running straight across the midfield before re-taking the ball on the wing, then already in injury time, Ward fired in a low shot that Gilks did well to keep out.

Well into stoppage time that magic moment occurred, Halford lobbed in anothe scud, the ball was flicked on by a Blackpool head and Huselkepp sublimely volleyed home.

If the game was a derge, the goal was enough to win it on its own.