Sorry for the late match report, but after the defeat last night I could of bashed out a few angry words or watch ‘this in England 96’. Only one winner on the night and it wasn’t Pompey!
So Pompey’s new wave of optimism after the spirited performance against Ipswich has been washed away in a matter of days, or has it? 4-1 looks an absolute drubbing, it is on papaer, but if you scratch the surface a different story can emerge. Pompey’s defending was indeed woeful for periods in the second half, but some of that can be put down to chasing a game, Rocha was asleep for one of the goal, he will admit that, but after the adrenaline rush of Saturday’s second debut maybe a bit of rustiness was evident.
Pompey also came out against a young striker with a lot to prove, I stated in my match preview he was the one to watch, bad luck has hindered his progress, but his hat-trick had quality and a little luck with a missing flag.
Pompey on the other hand did score again at last through Kitson who had a tap-in after a ‘keeper cock up, always good to get your first goal in new colours however it comes. In the second perios it could so easily have been Pompey 3-1 up after just a few minutes, Nugent netted and was denied unlike Vaughan by an offside flag, however dubious. Mullins missed an opotunity that almost any other player on the pitch would of buried, and later on we had one cleared form behind the line and Nugent had another shot that struck Gardner and flew over with the defender knowing nothing about it, add to Kitson hitting Kanu with a goal bound header and it could of been oh so different.
Pompey though still have just the two points from 6 games, a poor statistic whichever way you look at it, 2 goals scored is also nowhere near par either.
Pompey have to look for plusses where they can, Joel Ward is gaining valuable experience at right-back, Garvan was a tricky customer first half but the young man stuck to his task well, the more games he plays the more he will improve.
Kitson of course scored and got another game towards full match fitness. Rocha is still playing his way back ion and poor old Dave Nugent will get stick for another blank but is having no luck whatsoever.
I personally think the calls for Steve Cotterill’s head are way premature, he has cobbled together a wafer thin squad out of the debris of our spectacular crash, anyone who thought we would romp this league is nuts, people may point out that the majority of the team were in the Premiership last season, they was also good enough to get relegated from it!
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