It is something that we have said quite a lot in recent times, regarding Pompey really, but once again I have to say ‘what a difference a half makes!’
At 2-0 down, with barely 5-minutes on the clock, few would have expected a Pompey win – especially is such dramatic circumstances again. There was little, and I mean LITTLE, sign that Pompey would come away from The Keepmoat with anything other than a defeat…
‘Happy to see that they are at least going down fighting’ is something that Ken said on about 10-minutes, to which I replied ‘yep, Donny are doing just that!’
1st half was awful, little fight, little idea and little hope of anything – at 3.45pm, as it stood in our game and Bristol City’s, we were down…
Whatever Appy said, and did, at half time made a difference, that much you can be sure of: ‘the players reacted well and in the second half we went out there and showed the strength and power needed to win the game.
‘I told the players that the players coming off the bench in recent games hadn’t been making the impact I wanted, but this time they did.
‘I was angry and frustrated at half-time and I let the players know. I used some choice words and made sure I got eye-contact so they knew who I was talking about.’
Almost instantly we were much better in the 2nd half, when we got back to 2-2 I could only see one winner but then somehow the 10-men of Donny went ahead again.
Without a doubt we had some fortune!
The red card was a red card, the guy was the last man so had to go. The foul was clearly outside of the area though, but either way this sending off (like I say correctly so) really helped us.
Dave Kitson clearly handled to make it 3-3 and ‘probably’ fouled the defender to allow Marko Futacs to strike deep into injury-time, but what the hell eh!
We would have felt mighty aggrieved had this, the late goals and the fortune with just about all 4 of them, gone against us but I think that we warranted some fortune – and lets face it this defeat is not the reason that Donny are going down when all is said and done. ‘Technically’ it relegated them but they would not have survived would they, and chances are neither will we still but maybe, just maybe…
Appy knows that while we still have a chance we have to believe but also knows that all the while it is in Bristol City’s or Coventry’s hands we can do little: ‘the win gives me confidence for the last three games, but we cannot control Bristol City or Coventry’s results. If Bristol City take care of themselves then there`s nothing we can do about it.
‘If it was the Grand National I think we would probably be 500-1 shots to stay up. But we still want to finish the season on as high a note as possible.’
It is such a tough ask for us to stay up, but so long as we finish the season strong, and with pride, then I will be happy with that before we take on the ‘bigger battle’ this summer with the club looking to survive…
And survival is something that us fans can play our part in, and Appy also knows that with the support awesome in the 2nd half in particular: ‘a steward came into the dressing room and said our fans wouldn’t leave until I went out there.
‘They’re the best fans anywhere and deserve success. If we get the opportunity to rebuild this club then they will have a massive part to play.’
Appy if you want to be the man to help ‘rebuild us’, and can be given the tools needed to do this, I have absolute faith in your ability to do this and would welcome this.
Bring on Palace, perhaps – whatever we do – we will be officially relegated on Tuesday but I just want us to show we can string some results together and take another step towards finishing the season positively, if nothing else!
I know some might think ‘what does it matter’ but I think it most certainly does matter that we do, and not just for the sake of ‘pride’, perhaps for something much, much more important, potentially our very ‘future’…
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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