Wow! What can you say about that at Fratton on Saturday? Firstly I’ll say ‘fair play’ to Morecambe without a doubt, but that 3-3 draw in the end feels like a Pompey win but defeat to them!
Yep, they came to the Park with a gameplan.
I wouldn’t say it was a ‘park the bus’ one, as in fairness they hadn’t done that in the past 2-years they’ve come to town has they? If anything, that season they had a player sent off in the 1st half they should have, but didn’t! Although for a 3rd successive season they shipped 3-goals at the Park, this time though they also scored 3-goals too…
If you were a neutral that would have been a great game, as a Pompey fan, despite some frustration at times, it wasn’t bad and wouldn’t, that last gasp Pompey equaliser aside have been bad from a Morecambe perspective either to be fair!
Like I say they had a ‘gameplan’, they looked to wait and catch us on the break and it worked, taking advantage of a weakness down our left hand side with Enda Stevens ripped apart in that 1st half and some of the defending shocking…that said Morecambe played some decent football.
At the end of the day though perhaps their own ‘time wasting’, which was also a constant throughout, cost them…
The amount of subs made and the Stevens sending off saw a ‘minimum’ amount added, but their time wasting antics no doubt added more, and eventually brought that goal in the 95th-minute!
Back to Stevens, I would have hooked him off at half time. I told several I spoke to I would have done that and being a no-nonsense manager thought Paul Cook might have done that, with him and/or others. Perhaps his tackle was clumsier than anything but it WASN’T one he had to make! This was a silly sending off WHY he was applauded off, the guy will now be suspended after a fairly dodgy performance too to be honest, baffles me?!
What a bizarre game though…
Had we not got that goal before half time it probably would have been a different outcome, which is fairness it could have easily been 5-0 at that stage anyway! The Shrimps had another great chance at 3-0 that went wide I seem to recall and also hit the bar, I’d also, as good as the freekick was – and you cannot ask more than hitting the target – question Morecambe the goalie for not saving it? He got two hands to it and should, for me, have saved that not that I’ll complain!
You felt we needed that ‘early goal’ in the 2nd half, which didn’t come until the midway point of it although when it did what a cracking goal from Roberts, awesome quality to get ‘something out of nothing.’
After that it seemed ‘a matter of time’ before it became 3-3, maybe even 4-3 to PFC in the end, then came the Stevens sending off…but even after that, before Jayden Stockley’s dramatic goal, it could have easily been 4-3, probably even 5-3 to Pompey at that stage!
You’ve GOT to listen to Cook in this, he loved it. An absolutely awesome audio section on his own assessment.
He praised what was right, massively the fans again, but also what wasn’t so good with Morecambe, again rightly so, given huge praise for the part they played in a cracking afternoon.
Audio Clip used from AudioBoom – click here.
Brilliant interview isn’t it? I love the start to it!
This is such an ‘odd league’, just look at the results from it over the weekend…
Has being 3-0 down at home to Morecambe brought down expectancy levels? Maybe.
Although as I said to the guys as we travelled home – and I’ll admit when the adrenaline wore off I pretty much ‘crashed’ and just sat slumped in the car! – in a strange way to have come back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3, with 10-men for the final ΒΌ give or take, might have actually raised them!
Thoughts?
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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