People always hark on about ‘you get what you deserve in football’, really? Pompey have had one hell of a kicking on and off the field for the past 18 months now, a lot of it was our own doing of course, but on the field it is truly heartbreaking when you can dominate a match for 89 minutes and come home with nothing.
Pompey made a couple of changes for the match, Kanu dropped to the bench in place of Utaka, while Mokoena came in to replace Sonko in the firing line.
Pompey haven’t won at Bramall lane since 1955, that has been well documented, but Cotterill has obviously decided that the best way for us to get out of our latest predicament is by playing attacking football, one man who seemed right up for the task was surprisingly enough John Utaka. Utaka has flattered to decieve on numerous occasions, but when in the mood he is a true force to reckon with, he was cutting in from the left and causing all sorts of problems, trouble is Pompey came up against Steve Simonsen who decided to have one of the games of the season for Sheffield.
David Nugent missed another chance to get his and Pompey’s season firing, his shot from 15 yards lacked conviction and should of stretched Simonsen further.
Pompey were reolute in defence, but Utd had to wait until the 40th minute to get in behind them, Ched Evans got in and crossed for Ertl who sliced horribly wide.
The second half was more of the same, Utaka was skinning Calve with ease, Simonsen however was stopping everything, Nugent had a header clawed away, Lawrence a free-kick tipped around the post and our Irish international also saw a one-two with Nugent again snuffed out by the Bramall stopper.
On 77 minutes came the sucker punch pompey were left open to by their wayward finishing and bad luck, Dickinson handled and up stepped Evans to smash home off the post to record Sheffield’s only on target effort of the day.
Pompey pushed for an equaliser now rather than a winner, the closest they came though was a Kitson effort that found the side netting rather than the onion bag, ‘you get what you deserve in football’ My arse
What Next?
Pompey will get two cracks at Leicester now, first on tuesday, then on friday evening, Leicester are in trouble at the foot of the table also, what becomes of those two games could hallmark our season.
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