[Archived] Portsmouth v Rovers

[FGS5635]

Although some posters are obviosuly miserable gits, most of the the so called 'hysteria' is just nervous energy as the stakes are high and we are close to something really good.

After the last 7-8 years its hard to enjoy it as much as we normally would as you just cant shake the worry that its all going to end badly

[Tom]

8 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Very unfair on Ben Benson there Tom. 

I thought the board would be more positive but people are focusing on the negatives. Lets focus on Armstrong scoring 2 goals and us winning  

'Fighting spirit and togetherness' 

Head coach Tony Mowbray impressed as his #Blackburn side close the gap on the automatic promotion places.

? https://t.co/0l1PiSsIj0…

#Rovers #bbcfootball ? https://t.co/CTeVXzbPRy

I don't think it's unfair at all to suggest that Raya may benefit more from the wisdom of an ex pro than a 27 year old who hasn't played the game.

As I said his shot stopping is immaculate but his decision making needs work

Its horses for courses but in my work I'd prefer to be trained and feel I learn more from someone who has been there and done it than by someone who  has learnt it in a classroom but not got the experience to back it up 

[FGS5635]

The good thing with Raya is his weaknesses are things that can be improved. You cant teach reflexes and shot stopping though and he thankfully has them.

De Gea was a flapper on crosses when he came to utd. Now look at him.

I agree with Tom though an experienced coach or a verteran number 2 keeper could be a huge help for him.

He has to learn to punch the ball for now until he improves. The open handed flaps are dangerous.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

54 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Fratton Park itself helps the atmosphere. An 18,000 gate in a 19,000 capacity stadium with stands right on top of the pitch.

12/13,000 in Ewood Park spread over four big stands (well 3 and the Riverside) just makes it hard to get anything going.

This.  Our stadium is fantastic but outside of the prem, never going to be any where near full.  If we had a 20k ground like the old Ewood, then it would be a much better atmosphere.

[blueboy3333]

17 minutes ago, Biz said:

No, I don’t think a few of us give the team a single shred of credit. The Pompey fans views that I’ve read all said we looked “best team at fratton” this season, yet a few of ours who probably watched on a jerky facebook stream think we played poorly.

I imagine those same people would’ve been extremely critical had we played beautifully and lost 1-0.

And by the same token there are a few who will criticise nothing and only see the positives, and others who only log in when we win to call everyone else miserable but disappear when we put in a poor performance. You normally find the 2nd group on twitter or on BRFCS podcasts making vile jokes about Dignitas.

 

[DE.]

7 hours ago, speeeeeeedie said:

I had a look at the table. Unless Wigan and or Shrewsbury hit a bad spell I think it's the play off route for promotion. If those 2 lose their games in hand and Rovers blip is over it will get interesting.

The good news is that Wigan have already begun to wobble, let's hope that continues. As far as Shrewsbury are concerned Rotherham upcoming will be a make or break for them imo. Big match, if they win that it will give them a huge confidence boost for the run in. 

3 hours ago, AggyBlue said:

In fairness he attracted as many as four players when he got on the ball.

He did dwell on the ball too much though and attracting so many players to him left big spaces elsewhere. He needs to lay the ball off to take advantage.

Indeed, now that we have players like Armstrong and Payne in the team Dack should have more support creatively. I can understand him trying to hold onto the ball previously as he never has a great deal of support up top. Hopefully he will have more support going forward and we can use defenders magnetising to him to our advantage.

2 hours ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Great result...promotion is in our hands.

Not quite yet but we're getting closer. My one concern is that when we briefly DID have it all in our own hands we instantly crumbled and lost it. I'm hoping we're not one of those teams that is good when chasing but loses focus once we're out in front. 

2 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

“Sometimes I can become a bit intense with the team meetings and fine details and I stepped back a bit and the players took control and got the job done.

“Sometimes it’s important to give ownership of the team to the people who are out on the grass doing the job.

“We’ve spent a lot of time working. 32 games in, lots of meetings on how we play on the front foot, squeeze and press.

“They don’t need me to keep telling me every game, they don’t need me to tell them and they got the job done.”

As said before, at least he’s self aware.

It's great to hear about Tony and the team's work ethic, but yeah, he definitely needs to step back a little and let the players show what they can do. We don't need to be scared of Bury's left midfielder next Monday or whatever their threat is supposed to be. We should be able to dispatch of them at home without needing to go into very fine detail.

1 hour ago, D-side17 said:

I wonder if Wigan fans dismiss all of their wins as lucky and undeserved on the basis that they have a larger budget and better players than most other League One teams.

 In fairness Wigan tend to dominate the majority of their games and look convincing, whereas we rarely do, so there's going to be a difference in perception between our fans and theirs. The key, ultimately, is points though and despite their better performances they are still not very far ahead of us. We can scrape every result until the end of the season for all I care as long as we end it with promotion. It's understandable that Wigan's fans would be more confident than ours though... until now, anyway! 

1 hour ago, patrickvalery said:

Not seen much of Samuel so perhaps it's a bit unfair. But it looked to me like he was being played to justify the summer expenditure and he was due a run out.

I mentioned in a previous thread that it seems like Samuel's continued inclusion in the squad is more to do with justifying his transfer fee and wage than what he brings to the team. We should really look to offload in the summer whether we go up or not, but I fear that we might be paying him more than anybody else is prepared to offer. It wouldn't be the first time! The only thing I will say in Samuel's defence is that I don't think it's a lack of trying - he just isn't very good.

1 hour ago, Butty said:

 I've given up worrying about the way we play as long as we get 3 points. It seems to be a trademark of our season to not play particularly well but still win games, we've probably won more games in that manner than by actually performing to our best and blowing the opposition away. Maybe that's just what sort of team we are, I don't know, it's a strange one really. Like I said though, as long as we win then fook it  

Off the top of my head I can only think of Rotherham and Walsall at home where we really looked strong and dominant. There are probably a couple of others but yeah, by and large we tend to win games basically because we have a few of the division's top players. A fair few of our players would walk into any team in this league so it's to be expected that we would win otherwise even contests. It's similar to how Bowyer was winning games during his first couple of seasons as manager - the likes of Rhodes, Gestede and Cairney would often win matches for us that were otherwise 50/50. Once those players were sold off and not adequately replaced we tumbled pretty fast. Fode Koita was no Rudy Gestede and Like Varney was no Jordan Rhodes. 

   

[K-Hod]

Ultimately, all petty point-scoring aside, we got a very good win away from home where many were nervous about whether we would or not.

I'd take a narrow win playing 'badly' every week for the rest of the season as if we did that, we'd be going up automatically.

In the words of the jigga man 'on to the next one'.......

[Bigdoggsteel]

It will be interesting to see how Shrewsbury handle being the pace setters. A very different type of pressure. 

[JacknOry]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

It will be interesting to see how Shrewsbury handle being the pace setters. A very different type of pressure. 

On top of that added pressure, we couldn't have asked for much of a better fixture for them next up.

[darrenrover]

Great result, even if the performance was indifferent.

On the basis that we came away from Fratton Park with 3 points, I guess Tony got it right last night.

Interesting the comments on Raya and the goalkeeping coach, I entirely agree with those sentiments. I would add that confidence is a major factor in a goalkeeper's decision making and Raya shows a lack of confidence in the hesitancy he displays whenever he has time to think about what he should be doing. I'd see that as a mental issue and perhaps a suitably qualified sports psychologist could help. He certainly has all the raw attributes but needs to overcome his apparent fears to progress.

[Parsonblue]

Excellent following again and rewarded with another decent away performance against a strong, physical side.  It was a curious game in which both sides had spells dominating possession without creating too many clear cut chances.  Mulgrew and Bennett were outstanding for me and Smallwood had a better game than of late.  Payne continues to disappoint me and doesn't look anywhere near the player I saw earlier this season at Oxford.  In fairness, in that game he was playing in the Dack position rather than out wide where he offers no protection to his full-back and doesn't have the pace to get down the wing.  I suspect that the ban for Travis might be a reprieve for Payne as it was no surprise when he was taken off.  Another enjoyable night following the Rovers with plenty more twists and turns to come before the top two places are settled.  This felt like a significant moment in our season.   

[jim mk2]

Just now, Parsonblue said:

Excellent following again and rewarded with another decent away performance against a strong, physical side.  It was a curious game in which both sides had spells dominating possession without creating too many clear cut chances.  Mulgrew and Bennett were outstanding for me and Smallwood had a better game than of late.  Payne continues to disappoint me and doesn't look anywhere near the player I saw earlier this season at Oxford.  In fairness, in that game he was playing in the Dack position rather than out wide where he offers no protection to his full-back and doesn't have the pace to get down the wing.  I suspect that the ban for Travis might be a reprieve for Payne as it was no surprise when he was taken off.  Another enjoyable night following the Rovers with plenty more twists and turns to come before the top two places are settled.  This felt like a significant moment in our season.   

 

Payne isn't  a winger. He needs a free role like Dack, and is potentially a better player. Mowbray needs to accommodate both players if possible. It would be very disappointing if Payne's loan was deemed a failure and Rovers did not sign him on a permanent basis because we did not play him in his best position. 

[G Somerset Rover]

Had a bit of time to reflect on last night's match on the drive home/commute to work. Overall, chuffed with the win that could prove crucial come the end of the season.

First half we started well but but it was a largely disjointed 45. Great finish by Armstrong. Far too much 'hoofball' for my liking with Downing the main culprit. It just kept coming back at us time and again, particularly in the last 15/20 minutes when we just needed somebody to put their foot on it, but the problem was that the midfield was being completely bypassed.

Second half, for me, the switch to 3-5-2 helped us, in addition to the introductions of Lenihan and Travis. We had more bodies in the middle of the park, and were able to control the game a little more, with less of the long ball. We were still able to play it wide, but Williams and Bennett were largely wasteful when they did get in any dangerous positions (albeit they both put shifts in).

Onto a selection of the players. The bad. Raya was Raya. Some decent-ish stops, but eccentric throughout with needless punching/coming off his line, which cost us the goal. I had a neutral with me and he called it early doors that he'd make a rollock at some point, and so it proved. Samuel was completely anonymous bar one effort in the first half where he should have done better. His best contribution in the second half was letting the ball run for Bennett, which says it all. I actually thought Travis played well when he came on, but that challenge was reckless. Will be a lesson learned for the young lad no doubt, especially as he was on the verge of cracking the first 11.

The good. Mulgrew looked a class act again, and Lenihan was faultless when he came on which is some going for a guy who hadn't played a minute in the first team for 6 months. Smallwood got stuck in well, as did Bennett, while Downing had a decent second half too (less of the hoofing though please, Paul). I actually thought Dack did alright - as another poster commented he had circa 3-4 players on him everytime he got the ball and often evaded them. He just needed needed to be more decisive in the final third, as did Payne who looks like he has a touch of class, but again was wasteful bar the assist for Samuel’s effort. Armstrong had a very decent second half, which is no doubt due to playing through the middle. He was a nuisance and never stopped running - taking both of his goals well. Needs to play there from now on as he's largely ineffective out wide.

So will we go 3-5-2 for Bury? I think Tony will select it, but it's not without its issues, especially at home. The main one for me being at Ewood we need to be stretching teams in the attacking third out wide and I'm not sure this formation will give us that - particularly when 1 of the 2 strikers would be Graham or Samuel who can't run the channels (the former obviously does not have the legs for it anymore, and Samuel is Samuel). The other problem is Bennett and Bell/Williams are hardly Cafu and Candela. For the system to work effectively they're your 2 most important players and I think the jury's out as to whether they could pull it off. 

Hopefully the spirit captured at Fratton Park last night sees us going on a winning run now and ultimately helps to get us over the line come May.

[Parsonblue]

3 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

 

Payne isn't  a winger. He needs a free role like Dack, and is potentially a better player. Mowbray needs to accommodate both players if possible. It would be very disappointing if Payne's loan was deemed a failure and Rovers did not sign him on a permanent basis because we did not play him in his best position. 

Agree with this but I'm not sure how we entertain two players playing the same role without losing something somewhere else in the team.  Dack is physically stronger than Payne, who seems to be easily knocked off the ball, and for the moment I'd start Dack and have Payne on the bench to replace him if we need to change things.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, Parsonblue said:

Agree with this but I'm not sure how we entertain two players playing the same role without losing something somewhere else in the team.  Dack is physically stronger than Payne, who seems to be easily knocked off the ball, and for the moment I'd start Dack and have Payne on the bench to replace him if we need to change things.

I thought one of the main reasons for bringing Payne in was so we had a direct replacement if something happened to Dack. I also thought that although Payne wasn't a winger he'd be a better bet out there than Conway. Maybe I was wrong in that respect.

[jim mk2]

3 minutes ago, Parsonblue said:

Agree with this but I'm not sure how we entertain two players playing the same role without losing something somewhere else in the team.  Dack is physically stronger than Payne, who seems to be easily knocked off the ball, and for the moment I'd start Dack and have Payne on the bench to replace him if we need to change things.

 

Payne caused us all sorts of problems in the match at Oxford, and scored a cracking goal - the Rovers defence didn't know how to handle him. I'd have him, Dack, Bennett and Smallwood in midfield in a conventional 4-4-2. 

[Pedro]

1 hour ago, FGS5635 said:

The good thing with Raya is his weaknesses are things that can be improved. You cant teach reflexes and shot stopping though and he thankfully has them.

I disagree. Sanding floors, painting fences, a pair of chopsticks and some bluebottles works wonders for your reflexes.

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, Biz said:

No, I don’t think a few of us give the team a single shred of credit. The Pompey fans views that I’ve read all said we looked “best team at fratton” this season, yet a few of ours who probably watched on a jerky facebook stream think we played poorly.

I imagine those same people would’ve been extremely critical had we played beautifully and lost 1-0.

Very true. Stuart seems to think he knew it all after watching it on a stream and after quoting fans the game and their opinions he went off in a huff and stress. Leave him to it now. Great news hes on my ignore list. 

7 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

 

Payne caused us all sorts of problems in the match at Oxford, and scored a cracking goal - the Rovers defence didn't know how to handle him. I'd have him, Dack, Bennett and Smallwood in midfield in a conventional 4-4-2. 

4-4-2 would be awful. Dack isnt a centre midfielder or wide player. I wouldnt start Payne. Impact sub. 

32 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

 

So will we go 3-5-2 for Bury? I think Tony will select it, but it's not without its issues, especially at home. The main one for me being at Ewood we need to be stretching teams in the attacking third out wide and I'm not sure this formation will give us that - particularly when 1 of the 2 strikers would be Graham or Samuel who can't run the channels (the former obviously does not have the legs for it anymore, and Samuel is Samuel). 

I would go 3-5-2 and the players ive mention. 

Thanks for match report and inside into the game

[Gav]

I don't think it should be underestimated just what a tremendous win that was last night. Portsmouth don't lose many games at home and with 18.000 home fans roaring them on it's never been an easy place to go, but it'll count for very little if we can't win our home games!

We can certainly draw parallels between our two clubs, a mixture of foreign owners and Arry Redknapps spending put Portsmouth into administration owning £135 million in 2010, which resulted in a 9 point penalty and eventual relegation to league 2. The Portsmouth Supports trust bought the club in 2013,  and theyre now owned by Tornante Company who purchased the club from Pompey supporters trust in 2017.

This could be where we find ourselves in the not to distant future, but it just goes to show it's not necessarily the end if those idiots in Pune dump the debt on to the club.

Onwards and upwards.

 

 

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

12 hours ago, Stuart said:

No doubt I’ll get jumped on but, let’s be honest, we were appalling tonight. We can barely string a pass together and give the ball away so cheaply. Our players legs seem faster than their brains.

Stupid, hot-headed challenge from Travis when there was no danger. He might have got away with a yellow but for the reaction of both sets of players. The loss of Nyambe was a blow, let’s hope he isn’t out for long.

That said, a massive three points tonight, which just about makes up for the draw at the weekend. Very, very lucky this evening and but for a mistake from Pompey that winner didn’t look like happening. Selection and changes by Mowbray? Jury’s out.

Meanwhile, Shrewsbury keep on scoring late and winning games. A side we smashed at Ewood!

I do not fancy our chances at all in the play-offs and hope that Wigan or Shrewsbury capitulate.

Thoroughly depressing

[islander200]

31 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

 

Payne caused us all sorts of problems in the match at Oxford, and scored a cracking goal - the Rovers defence didn't know how to handle him. I'd have him, Dack, Bennett and Smallwood in midfield in a conventional 4-4-2. 

So you would play either Payne or Dack wide or both of them wide?

I have to agree with Chaddy that our squad is probably best tailored to play 3-5-2 now,earlier in the season when Mowbray played that way we didn't have the personal that fitted but in my opinion we do now, with the return of Lenihan and the addition of Amari Bell.

We don't have creative wingers to be playing a 4-4-2.Dack and Payne would just drift inside leaving our full backs exposed.Although Conway and Bennett out wide would help us defensively they don't create enough.

[darrenrover]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

Very true. Stuart seems to think he knew it all after watching it on a stream and after quoting fans the game and their opinions he went off in a huff and stress. Leave him to it now. Great news hes on my ignore list. 

4-4-2 would be awful. Dack isnt a centre midfielder or wide player. I wouldnt start Payne. Impact sub. 

I would go 3-5-2 and the players ive mention. 

Thanks for match report and inside into the game

Dack's been great until no offers came in for him in January and Payne was signed (IMO), just in case they did and he upped sticks.

I'd drop Dack against Bury and play Payne in the role of number 10. It would give him a rest and refocus his attention.

I can see you are all of a sudden a major advocate of playing 3-5-2. I'd be interested to know what attributes you feel our players have to fit that system of play, who you'd play where and why because for me I just don't see it working. Would I also be correct in assuming that you see Dack/Payne as one of the 2 up top in this formation? 

[FGS5635]

I think if they both play then dack is better as the wider player. He is far better 1 v 1 against the fullback than payne who is a different type of player.

[tomphil]

Any win at Pompey in any division down the years is a good effort and in our case i think it often only comes when we are having a good season so a good marker.

Main thing for me is they stood up to the physical threat and didn't crumble under pressure after they equalised. I thought we were in for a bumpy patch and didn't expect anything down there so it's a massive win, job done.

But it's all about the next game now and i think after seeing what he said the players should just say boss set us up attacking and lets just go out and play, leave the over tactical approach to one sidd for a bit and see how it goes.

[darrenrover]

14 minutes ago, Gav said:

I don't think it should be underestimated just what a tremendous win that was last night. Portsmouth don't lose many games at home and with 18.000 home fans roaring them on it's never been an easy place to go, but it'll count for very little if we can't win our home games!

We can certainly draw parallels between our two clubs, a mixture of foreign owners and Arry Redknapps spending put Portsmouth into administration owning £135 million in 2010, which resulted in a 9 point penalty and eventual relegation to league 2. The Portsmouth Supports trust bought the club in 2013,  and theyre now owned by Tornante Company who purchased the club from Pompey supporters trust in 2017.

This could be where we find ourselves in the not to distant future, but it just goes to show it's not necessarily the end if those idiots in Pune dump the debt on to the club.

Onwards and upwards.

 

 

Difference being our debt is owed to the idiots.