[Archived] Rovers 2-1 Portsmouth

[juggalo_rover]

Well its been quite a good half.

Haven't really had that many oppurtunities on goal but shutting them down all the time and having plenty of time on the ball.

There goal shouldn't of been a free kick.

[tchocky]

anyone watching?

[jim mk2]

Moi. Rovers sitting back far too much in second half.

[jim mk2]

Another escape. Todorov should have scored.

[jim mk2]

And another escape.

Rovers determined to let it slip.

[Shevchenko]

Sounded like it was a tighter game in the second half than it should have been, but still 3 points and we move up to 8th in the league. Nice

[krislu]

A really close match form what I understand! But we got 3 points and that is the most important thing!

[tchocky]

Excellent stuff. Very satifying to look at the table now.

[theresonly1alj]

First half was all Rovers and second all Portmouth. We got the three points though. Good to see MGP getting to form. Also nice to see Kuqi starting, but shame he wasn't playing with Belamy for longer.

Up to 8th place.

[Flopsy]

very good 1st half - shakey 2nd half.

We were lucky that Pompey arent all that up front and that im wearing my lucky pants

[Rovermatt]

It was nice to get three points but we really weren't good second half-shaky, stunted and pegged back by a truly woeful Pompey side.

[AussieinUk]

Climbing the ladder..

[Blueboy Downunder]

a very good first half performance, we passed very well, moved off the ball very well and scored a couple of nice goals. in the end and to be fair, portsmouth where better than us in 2nd half and we ended up stuttering over the line to get the points, but i aint too bothered about that. we have had a great xmas period. the team are playing excellent football and scoring some great goals, as we have done all season.

well done lads!

[jim mk2]

Very, very lucky lucky.

Pompey should have won.

[des]

watch it on sky, a good first half, but the second half we lost it in the middle and gave away the ball to much and we therefore put pressue on ourselfs rather then the other team. Ried was very good ibn the first half, but semmed to fad away a bit in the second. still a good three points.

[Bobby G]

Great first half. Shouldve scored more in the first half. They were poor.

Second half we were a little less solid and sat back a little too much and they piled on pressure and couldve and shouldve equalized as they had 2 great chances.

Didnt let the fans enjoy the last 30 minutes with the way we played cause it was a case of chewing on nails a bit.

Bellamy laid two chances on the plate for Savage and Emerton, who had to slot it home and had his shot blocked.

PS. Bring back Gray. Everytime Matteo touched it you felt a calamity could happen.

[Bobby G]

Are you having a laugh? Pompey should have won?!?!

[Oklahoma]

Great holiday season for Rovers.

Now, we must beat Sunderland to catch Arsenal :rovers:

[theresonly1alj]

I don't think they should have won. A draw would have been fair. But it's time some luck went our way.

[Bobby G]

Based on our first half performance and the two sitter we missed in the 2nd, I dont think a draw would have been fair.

Pompey only really played for about 30 minutes. They were barely in our half in the first half.

They will struggle to stay up cause they lack quality, their passing was especially poor.

[Esulx]

It is about time we pick up 3 points without playing well.

In previous matches against Everton and Fulham (a) for example we've had a lot of chances but haven't taken them and gone on to lose the match.

Yes Redknapp will be unhappy at not getting anything out of the game, yes the drive home for Pompey fans will be full of "what if" comments but at the end of the day, our boyz have walked away with the points and I for one am happy at that.

I hope that the 2nd half of the season will be just as productive for Rovers as this 1st half has been.

Go Rovers!!!

p.s. for those that didn't know, Gray has flu hence the change at left back. I don't know who was more nervous, Matteo or me!!!

[philipl]

jim on the wind-up again. Nelsen caught the ball with an amazing chest dip although the way he executed I can understand the ref giving handball and the free kick which Pompey scored from.

First half we were sublime- chasing everything and brilliant passing. MGP had his best all round half I've seen from him, Savage caused them all kinds of problems, their defence will sleep on the coach back with Dickov nightmares and Reid was supreme- on the first half a valid replacement for Tugay.

Two things stuck out second half apart from the Rovers' lack of appetite for more goals:

Kuqi was the cause of many move break downs with poor control, wrong passes and bad decisions- Sutton would have had a field day out there tonight.

O'Neil of Pompey is an amazing player. He simply neutralised Reid and Savage and not many midfielders will do that.

Zura had a particularly effective game and he was badly needed in that second half. Emo's attempt at scoring from that set-up from Bellamy at the end was woeful- no awareness that he had to meet the ball and change the angle. As it was, had it not been blocked, Emo was passing the ball to Westerfeld with an empty net looking.

Good three points and the table looks sweet!

[G Somerset Rover]

Good win, and a very valuable 3 points. We wre pretty clueless and nervous in the second half, but first half our midfield meant that we dominated the proceedings. I thought that MGP had his best game for us for quite some time. On a bad note everytime the opposition has a free kick at the moment, I'm very worried about Brads positioning. Yes the wall didnt do great but it didnt take a genious to work out where Matty Taylor was going to place it. On the whole though a good 3 points. Its teams like Pompey who are going to be very hard to play against from here on in due to the fact that their hanging by their nackers.

Edited January 2, 2006 by Somerset Rover!

[James No. 7]

I watched this game on television "down here" and was well pleased with the result. There was no stand-out individual performance, but it was a mostly discplined performance but not too pretty performance (what happened to the brilliant passing game?) that deserved the win, barring the last 20 minutes of the match.

Mark Hughes (9): He got his tactics right today/tonight. We kept tight at the back, let slip a goal that should never have been, and only seemed to let our guard down in the last 20 minutes, which was purely lost concentration on the part of the players.

Friedel (7): Did not have too much to do. Nearly stuffed up in the last twenty minutes of the game. He came off his line and was running all over the place in an 18 yard box scrap.

Neill (7): He did nothing wrong as far as I could see. He did not give the team much in attack because Bentley ignored him 99% of the time and did not use him, which was a real shame. He is a pleasure to watch going forward.

Khizanishvili (7): Did his job.

Nelsen (7): Did his job. He was the victim of poor refereeing when he conceded the free kick (for handball) that led to the early Portsmouth goal.

Matteo (7): He did his job.

Bentley (6): Contributed little to the team's overall good performance. (1) He ignored Neill 99% and seemed to flatly refuse to link up with him. (2) Counter attacks ended with him (badly) and attacks lost momentum because of him, mainly because (3) he never seemed to know what to do with the ball. (4) His work rate was the polar opposite of the rest of the team (the team's work rate was superb). (5) He lacked any sort of penetration.

Reid (7): His powerful drive forced Westerveld to spill his shot which fell for Dickov to slot away.

Savage (7): He did his job, but lacked penetration in attack. He missed a sitter in the dying minutes of the match. He was clear but off-balance and should have left it for Emerton. I have also noticed that he gets forward far much more now.

Pedersen (7): His overall game was better than I have seen him in the past. He gave the Portsmouth defence something to think about and he topped his well-rounded performance off with a brilliant free kick goal to boot.

Dickov (7): His closing down caused the Portsmouth defence all sorts of problems. He also contributed much to the attack and cleverly poached a goal via a Reid shot at goal and a spill by their goalkeeper.

Kuqi (6): He was out of the game. There is not much more to add.

Emerton (7): Came on as a substitute for Bentley and made a crucial interception in defence to what could have been a goal scoring opportunity, while having a very good attempt at goal at the other end which was only stopped by desperate defending.

Bellamy (7): Caused the Portsmouth defence all sorts of problems in the last 25 minutes, like Dickov did in the first 65 minutes. However, Dickov did it by closing down, while Bellamy did it more via pace on the ball.

Tugay (6): He came on in injury time as a time wasting measure. He gets a default rating.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Rovers. It is a pleasure to watch the blue and white halves these days. I never feel like we are going to concede, a feeling that I never lost, even in the last 20 minutes of the match, while I had full faith in the boys making a comeback when we were behind.

Despite what one or some have said, I thought we thoroughly deserved our victory. Yes, Portsmouth could have easily scored one or two and made the result very different, but no, we had the same sort of story in the first half when we could have easily put another one or two in ourselves plus the second half Savage sitter.

[greggyk]

I think the amount of games played recently really did show in the 2nd half. Rovers never got out of 2nd gear today and was really quite easy in the end apart from when they did our defence and that Tyalor shot. But Emerton also missed a good chance at the end.

MGP had a very good game(maybe because of Matteo being behind him?)and so did Reid in the 1st half. Savage also played very well in the 1st half but started to tire badly in the end.

My ratings:

Brad-8 great save from Taylor

Neill- 6 caught out of position a few times

Nelsen 7- solid

Zura- 7 solid

Matteo- 8 Defended very well,and at least tired to attack

Bently- 6.5 showed flashes

Savage- 7 solid

Reid- ran the show in 1st half and never stoped runing

Pedersen- 9 fantastic

Kuqi- 6 pretty average i thought

Dickov- 7 looked sharp and took his goal well, suprrised he was taken off

Edited January 2, 2006 by greggyk