There was a positive or two from deciding, late on, to go to the Plymouth game but I cannot say that any of them actually involved the game itself!
Pompey were again woeful and did little to convince me that I should do any rethinking about ending my ‘self imposed exile’ in going to away games…
Fortunately for me, being based in Devon anyway, this away game was a rare home game in effect so the fact that I did not have the usual hours and hours to travel home was of some consolation.
Lets, first and foremost, be absolutely honest here this WAS always a game that would be difficult for us and if we came away with anything we would have done well – the 3-0 defeat we suffered was poor though, but in all honestly not in the least bit surprising for me…
As soon as that ‘defensive’ and ‘negative’ side was announced we were beaten!
I appreciate that away from home you will be more often than not be willing to ‘settle for a point’, and if you can get that, or more, it is a real bonus but I still cannot get my head around Andy Awford selecting two defensive midfielders, what is more one of them was a defender and the other being given the task of making his debut against one of the toughest teams he could in league two.
Again I appreciate AA had a gameplan in mind but what sort of message does this send out to the ‘experienced’ midfielders, and midfielders that ARE actually midfielders, if the manager goes for his untried son and a player that is a defender by trade ahead of them!
It was hardly fair on Nick Awford and as much as I do, and have said previously, feel that Jack Whatmough could in time develop into a decent holding midfielder this was not the game to be revisiting that position.
They say that football is ‘in the mind’ in many ways, with that mindset we were beaten before a ball was kicked, and Plymouth knew. It was not a team that looked to have the ability to come back if we did concede, and had no chance if it went to two or more!
Ok, we started well but from the minute the penalty was conceded – at the time I thought it very soft but felt that Nicky Shorey had stuck a leg out when he really did not need to, a striker such as Rueben Reid will NOT take much encouragement to go over, as we found out…
What the hell Ben Chorley was thinking for the second goal I have no idea, he pulled out of the challenge instead of going for it seemingly fearful of conceding another penalty! Time the tackle right and it would not only have prevented the set-up it would have cleared the danger!
Defensively, we were all over the shop, and that was set-up with a defensive formation… I am sorry, but I did not need hindsight to know this was wrong and neither should AA…
This was a real eye-opener for me as IF this is a sign of what we have been like away from home it has been woeful, p***poor would sum it up and if ever statistics ‘told a lie’ it was Saturday, they made the game look much better and closer than it was.
Really, trust me this was a no contest all the way!
2nd half there was improvement, some down to the fact that AA eventually made some tactical changes and I have to say that we ended with a team and formation more like the one we should have started with, but also a lot of this improvement was down to Plymouth ‘easing off’ – and why not, they had done the job inside half an hour…
Among the things AA said after the game he said: ‘that is not uncharacteristic of us away from home.
‘That is the disappointing thing for me. The home form is promotion form but the away form is relegation form.’
Erm, sorry Andy I disagree!
Whilst I am not going to jump on your back and say that it is time to ‘replace you’, as some calls are now coming, I cannot sit here and agree with you that our ‘home form is promotion form’ as you are basing this on a narrow win over a then struggling Stevenage side and a good win against a poor Carlisle side.
Yep, based on the last couple of Fratton games that is ‘promotion form’, the season as a whole at Fratton is far from it, lets not kid ourselves…
Football is essentially a very simply game, pick the best XI send them out positively and look to win the games – if systems and personnel, granted injuries cannot be helped, keep changing is it little wonder it is not working?
Simplify it AA, a few of us were in agreement that you are perhaps ‘over thinking’ things and making it harder for yourself and therefore putting undue pressure on yourself too.
Another thing that is looking more and more apparent is that despite the coaching team all being ‘nice guys’ and ‘getting Pompey’ there is not enough experience so AA could do with someone with more experience to bounce ideas off, who will tell him ‘this is not working’ if it is clear it is not, but for whatever reason he cannot.
Nigel Atangana has had some up and down games but we again needed that driving force from midfield, by the time he came on – which he only did due to injury to Whatmough I might add! – Plymouth had well and truly settled for their lot, you could see that, but you could also see he made a difference.
Get the guy in, would he really offer less than a youngster who is still finding his way in the game or a defender being played out of position…
Back to the ‘simplifying it’ thoughts and football being a ‘simple game’ Plymouth became the latest side to show that the following will work:
? ‘Select your best XI’
? ‘Defend well’
? ‘Apply pressure’
? ‘Win the battles in midfield’
? and ‘Have a big old unit up front’
Reid is a man mountain, it is no coincidence that most of the more successful sides in this league not only have a goalscorer but this goalscorer is more often build like a brick out-house, or is playing alongside one that is!
We are too lightweight and if we are going to play with the ‘lone striker’, albeit to lightweight himself, go with the lone striker that will do the job most effectively, and that is not Miles Storey is it, with it doing him and us little favours.
Yet another feeling of déjà vu descends, but AA is facing a crucial week, defeat in our FA cup relay at Aldershot would really see pressure building ahead of Morecambe coming to Fratton next weekend.
All due respect to both Aldershot and Morecambe but they are sides we should be beating and IF we go about it the right way we will, chopping and changing personnel and formations – unnecessarily – will not cut it.
We MUST do better, if/when we do I will not be there I know that as I have been discouraged even more from attending ‘away games’, not just from the abject showing I saw but also from some unsavoury incidents at Home Park, which I will get onto in the coming day or so…
Stop playing the opposition Andy and play football OUR way and with the right XI selected – it would be better to lose a game here and there doing what it was you did last season than keep changing it around and over complicating things, us playing terribly and losing anyway!
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