For the final 30-35-minutes of the 1st half at Glanford Park yesterday virtually all of the 11 players that started for Pompey played as though they had all been told that they would be released at the end of the season!
The opening 10-15 minutes was quite different, I thought they started fairly brightly and looked like they wanted to be here…
Steve Cotterill admitted we were ‘pretty rubbish’ in the 1st half: ‘we were pretty rubbish in the first half. We did things we haven’t done all season, gifting them a goal. We were poor and the lads knew that at half-time.’
Quite clearly he gave them a right b******ing at half time and this made all the difference!
When all is said and done, rewind 9-10-months, and survival at this level is something we would have all taken, right?
Yep there have been times when we could, and should, have done better, but we have survived and that was the main thing that Cotterill has taken from this season: ‘it`’ been a long, hard season for the lads, but it was almost job done eight weeks ago. The season has been based on survival rather than anything else.
‘If someone had said last August that we would get 58 points, I would have taken it. But then you want 68 and 78.
‘In the last few weeks we’ve struggled to score – we’ve scored six in the last 12 games. That’s not enough, because you don’t win games by half a goal.
‘But we haven’t got the flushest of squads and only had three outfield on the bench again.’
As things stand, and of course this can change – and hopefully will, we look as though we are in for another tough old summer with next season looking like another battle, potentially even tougher than this one!?
Although there is little that we can do at this point, and has as seemed the case forever, we can do nothing but sit and wait and see what the coming weeks brings.
‘Word on the street’ remains that the CSI takeover will be done by ‘mid-May’, if/when this happens lets see what they do regarding the squad rebuilding – something that clearly needs sorting sooner rather than later this time round…
1500 fans made the trip to Glanford Park and we offered fantastic support once again.
For Cotterill, and in many ways very true, this support has gone a long way to guiding us to safety this season: ‘there have been many factors in our survival this season, but the biggest one has been our supporters. They’ve been unbelievable.’
So, there we have it another season is done and dusted – another summer break is coming and then another summer of wondering what will happen with PFC is what we are in store for, there is rarely a dull moment with this club is there…
As always Vital Pompey will continue during the summer months though so make sure that any break you might take because there is no football is not a break that you are away for too long for!
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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