Coventry was ‘meant’ to see Pompey continue where we left off against Birmingham in midweek, but we flattered to deceive…
What a cracking canal side pub, The Greyhound, we found though – at least that was a silver lining!
Appy knows that there was ‘not much in the game’, and little separated the sides – well bar a 2-0 Coventry win! – but also knows the performance just was not good enough.
At half time we were saying that we thought ‘the game was there for the taking’ but Coventry certainly started the 2nd half on the front foot, and that made all the difference: ‘I think were we short of where we needed to be. Coventry started the second half quickly and we didn’t get going, and it cost us dearly.
‘We hit the post and had a couple of half chances. There wasn’t that much in the game but we’re at the stage of the season where you’ve got to take the bull by the horns in a game. The first half was played at almost a testimonial pace.
‘After the performance against Birmingham I was expecting the boys to take the game by the scruff of the neck. But they didn’t.’
The goals were soft, both could have been avoided, especially the second one! You cannot allow a man to ghost in that easily at the back post as Greg Halford allowed.
He has been pretty consistent this season to be fair, but he totally let his man go and for him to berate the rest of the team like he did was unbelievable. It was his man, so whilst the team were collectively at fault I do not think he had much right to be critical of anyone else for his lack of keeping with his man as he was the right back…
Anyway, we now have back-to-back home games again, on Tuesday against Hull and then Burnley on Saturday.
We, and Appy, knows that a reaction is needed and he is targeting a double win: ‘the defeat has knocked us back, but we’ve now got two home games in four days and we need to look to take six points from them.
‘We’ve got very good form at home, but we’ve only got eight games left and we’re at the stage where we need to start picking up the points.
‘The supporters were superb again and I told the players afterwards that they needed to make it up to them against Hull on Tuesday night.’
I was bitterely disappointed, for as good as we were for 45-minutes against Brum on Tuesday we were, overall, as poor for 90-minutes at a far inferior Coventry yesterday – it just did not make sense?
Coventry were not better than us, but they took the clear-cut chances that they created and that is all that counts really…
Before the game there was a lot of ‘must win’ talk, from myself included, but in the cold light of day, aside from the knock to confidence, in the grand scheme of things not much has changed really has it?
We are notoriously poor travellers, so defeat probably is not much of a ‘surprise’ really is it!
I would have thought we could have raised our game and had said, after the game, that I thought that we were done as if we could not follow up that 4-1 win with something more positive we never would!
Chances are, if we are honest, we will still go down but ‘if’ we can maintain an unbeaten home record for the rest of the season – and really take at least 4pts from the 6pts coming up next week – and win away at Doncaster, at least, then there is still every chance we can stay up, but that is easier said than done of course…
Our goal difference is worth another point to us so as disappointed as we might be now it is not beyond the realms of possibility that this time next week we could well be sitting outside of the relegation places?
There are too many games, and too many potential twist and turns to be had yet, for us to give up!
The biggest positive is that we now know 100% that what we have now, player wise, is what we will have until the end of the season – no one else can be taken from us!
So any minds that might have been wondering need to fully focus on the task in hand and put summer time thoughts to be put on hold until then…
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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