Saturday 27th August 2022

[leedsvaliant]

Classic Cowley team really. No real desire to play football but perfect tactics for an away win. Basically, get a goal ahead and then break the play up with several tactical fouls and strong arm tactics. Referee needed to start booking earlier and surely there was at least one penalty in there? We had the same ref for Bristol Rovers last season and he allowed them to do exactly the same. Lots of those fouls that are well concealed. We just didn't have the guile or nous to break it down and passed the ball as poorly as I can remember. As with MK Dons or Bolton, if you have Wilson in there he does something magical to change the game. We still look very rusty and in a development phase, whereas Pompey are established and have fine tuned their squad.

Fair play to Portsmouth, they looked functional and strong but it's not the most exhilarating style of play. It's essentially Westley era Stevenage but with a couple of slightly better footballers. Pretty poor for the budget they must have. I felt we gave them way too much respect and needed to get in their faces more...the atmosphere was flat.As I said before the season, the standard of this league has been massively overplayed. It's still pretty shite standard but with the odd decent player thrown in. Although we haven't got the results yet in the main, the only team I thought were better than us on the day were Exeter and they were in our league last year. Once we have a bit more of a settled team, I can see us doing alright. We just massively lack up top but we're playing midfielders there and a 17 year old left wing back today.

 

[Gassy]

Yeah, they out-shithoused us at ours, which I feel is no mean feat. But obviously we can’t really complain.

Not gonna lie, I still get nightmares about the shithousery in your promotion season when you beat us 2-1 at our place.

It ain’t pretty but applied correctly, it’s bloody effective

 

[kieran_vale]

Classic Cowley team really. No real desire to play football but perfect tactics for an away win. Basically, get a goal ahead and then break the play up with several tactical fouls and strong arm tactics. Referee needed to start booking earlier and surely there was at least one penalty in there? We had the same ref for Bristol Rovers last season and he allowed them to do exactly the same. Lots of those fouls that are well concealed. We just didn't have the guile or nous to break it down and passed the ball as poorly as I can remember. As with MK Dons or Bolton, if you have Wilson in there he does something magical to change the game. We still look very rusty and in a development phase, whereas Pompey are established and have fine tuned their squad.

Fair play to Portsmouth, they looked functional and strong but it's not the most exhilarating style of play. It's essentially Westley era Stevenage but with a couple of slightly better footballers. Pretty poor for the budget they must have. I felt we gave them way too much respect and needed to get in their faces more...the atmosphere was flat.As I said before the season, the standard of this league has been massively overplayed. It's still pretty shite standard but with the odd decent player thrown in. Although we haven't got the results yet in the main, the only team I thought were better than us on the day were Exeter and they were in our league last year. Once we have a bit more of a settled team, I can see us doing alright. We just massively lack up top but we're playing midfielders there and a 17 year old left wing back today.

Some of the cynical stuff when they were out of possession was getting a bit much but the ref needs to be stronger and dish out the cards. He basically gave them license to do it. With that said I think its doing them a dis-service about them when they did have the ball. I thought they were very good in that part of the game and did create some openings even if not managing more than one on target. Pack looked the best player on the pitch and he controlled the game.

Looks like we are now going to be without Proctor for a period of time due to a dodgy hip. Does explain why he hasn't looked himself this season. Thankfully Wilson is due back in full training from Thursday so he should hopefully make an appearance against Cheltenham.

 

[TractorBoys]

I'm not gunna engage with any responses relating to the the dog shit refereeing we witnessed today. Blue murder. Surely something has to be done about the clear ineptitude.

 

[AmberRich]

Absolutely atrocious performance from Cambridge today, worst of the season so far. Yet we still scored 4 and got the 3 points, trying to work out if that shows how bad Burton are or that we are actually a fairly decent team even when we are not at our best. Ultimately it's the type of performance that will stop us getting more than mid table.

So far from what I've witnessed this season, attacking wise we have improved and defence wise we have promising players yet they have lots to still work on.

 

[Soz]

Congratulations to todays referee for winning the competition to be ref for a day. Where do they get them from?

they signed him on a free after his release from cardiff:

Midfielder Pack returns to Portsmouth

Portsmouth re-sign midfielder Marlon Pack on a two-year deal following his exit from Cardiff City.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Dan Phillips]

Official Portsmouth Complaints Department

It has been brought to my attention that some of our customers have been less than impressed with the Portsmouth Experience they've had over the last two weekends. This is very disappointing as we value our customers greatly and always endeavour to ensure that they enjoy the Portsmouth Experience as much as possible. I will try to tackle (excuse the pun!) as many of the complaints as possible.

Bribing of referees / transporting referees to games
We are proud of our match official negotiating team and the work they do. Over the years it has proven to be more practical to discuss "buying" three points face to face with the officials rather than over the phone. The team coach is a great venue for this and so we've changed our match day routine to allow time to transport the match officials safely to and from the stadium. We make no apologies for this and expect our opponents to make the same approaches to the match officials in the spirit of healthy competition.

Style of Play / Shithousery
We always provide an opportunity for our customers to advise us on what style of play and formation we should use at your venue. I have spoken to Mr Cowley and on neither occasion did he receive any pre-match communication from either Mr Barton or Mr Clarke as to the formation they wished us to play, the playing style (e.g. Premier League Style) we should use, or indeed the level of Shithousery we should employ. Nature abhors a vacuum, and thus Mr Cowley felt free to make these decisions himself.

If I have missed anything out, please reply to this missive.

Good luck and best wishes from the PFC family!

It's actually painful that a fully grown adult wrote that.

Extremely tinpot.

 

[valefan16]

Some of the cynical stuff when they were out of possession was getting a bit much but the ref needs to be stronger and dish out the cards. He basically gave them license to do it. With that said I think its doing them a dis-service about them when they did have the ball. I thought they were very good in that part of the game and did create some openings even if not managing more than one on target. Pack looked the best player on the pitch and he controlled the game.

Looks like we are now going to be without Proctor for a period of time due to a dodgy hip. Does explain why he hasn't looked himself this season. Thankfully Wilson is due back in full training from Thursday so he should hopefully make an appearance against Cheltenham.

Yeah Procs is going to be a while by the sounds of it, but great Willo is close, be a huge boost that but the Procs situation does show how critical it is we get a striker in this week. A partner for Harrison today we probably get a positive result.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Hard not to agree with the Ipswich fans on the goal incident, even Sam Parkin (Ipswich 2005-6) seemed mystified by it.

 

[Boletus Edulis]

I know a sickness bug ran through the squad, but we were poor. The passing was awful, and play like that against Wednesday and Ipswich and the result will be different. i felt both sides nullified the other a bit. Bottom line is we took our chances, Bolton did not.

Last year I was a big fan of Santos, but yesterday he was only so-so. Certainly at fault for the first, though Ennis had to do well to finish it off. Ennis must be six inches shorter and won most arial balls. Felt at the time, and the replay confirms, Trafford should have done better for Hardie’s goal. Our best goalkeeper in the league made his saves, Bolton’s best goalkeeper in the league did not. Onwards to Derby.

 

[Stroud]

 

[Muzzle]

one bad mistake by Santos (again) and the game turns, three losses on the bounce now, no panic yet, but maybe Evatt needs to stick to a consistent 11 now

 

[The Jovial Forester]

Moral victory second half when you think about it

 

[91SPP]

It felt like history was repeating itself, again, majority of the ball, chances and still struggling to hit the back of the net. Peterborough score on the counter. The crowd get restless, but the team showed a lot of character in the end.

Shout out to the Peterborough keeper who I thought was absolutely excellent. I heard good things going into the game, but he’s definitely one to look out for going forward. Big future.

Good back to back home wins, still 100% record at pride park and two more home games on the bounce, first Grimsby and then Plymouth.

Collins is getting worse and worse, not scoring the hatful of chances he got in the first fortnight has really impacted his confidence. He’s now a shadow of that. I think he starts Tuesday, but is benched regardless for the game on Saturday. McGoldrick will get his first start in the league.

 

[Boletus Edulis]

one bad mistake by Santos (again) and the game turns, three losses on the bounce now, no panic yet, but maybe Evatt needs to stick to a consistent 11 now

Do you think Trafford should have saved Hardie’s? At the time it looked odd to me that it went in, the trajectory of the ball felt close to the keeper. But I was goalside so could not be sure, but looking at the replay, looks like he had his hands up for a high shot and could not get them down in time.

 

[BarrieOwl]

Moral victory second half when you think about it

No you still lost that one as well.

 

[The Jovial Forester]

No you still lost that one as well.

You're a cruel man, Barrie.

 

[BarrieOwl]

You're a cruel man, Barrie.

Gotta be cruel to be kind

 

[LeonTheGreen]

Do you think Trafford should have saved Hardie’s? At the time it looked odd to me that it went in, the trajectory of the ball felt close to the keeper. But I was goalside so could not be sure, but looking at the replay, looks like he had his hands up for a high shot and could not get them down in time.

I said the same to my mate who’s a goalkeeper himself and he said it was so close to him and hit so well that he could adjust his body position in time.

 

[Chris FGR]

We passed it around nicely at times tbf. Couldn't get close to Bannan though. Wednesday could have gone up a couple of gears if needed according to some of their fans, glad they didn't or we'd have done a Bournemouth.

 

[BarrieOwl]

We passed it around nicely at times tbf. Couldn't get close to Bannan though. Wednesday could have gone up a couple of gears if needed according to some of their fans, glad they didn't or we'd have done a Bournemouth.

Last half hour was just dull, we didn't have to press so the game dropped into a lull, I'd have loved us to have kept going for it though

 

[dedwardp]

.

 

[Floreat Salopia]

Yet again we had double the amount of shots against our opponents, but deja vu, we couldn’t take advantage.

If we had another striker that could rival Udoh then we’d be a few more points better off by now. Udoh was out for the Morecambe and Accrington games, then was forced off yesterday before HT. It’s worrying how much we rely on one single player for goals.

Bowman might have scored but he should have had atleast a double if not a hat trick. Goes through on goal in injury time and panics with a rushed attempted lob over the keeper. So frustrating!

Looks like we’re favourites to sign Cole Stockton and boy do we need him more than anybody else right now. Sign Stockton and get Udoh fit again and I’ll be happy, until then it’s just frustrating that we have almost 60 attempts across three games and score 1 goal. Ugh.

Onto Forest Green away.

 

[thewwfc]

We passed it around nicely at times tbf.

yeah, but you don’t get points for that (not that you said that you do - but “nice” teams will get bullied in this division, regardless of their commitment to “playing the game the right way” or whatever).

Onto Forest Green away.

And blimey, if you’re a “nice” team then Shrewsbury are up there on the list of teams you don’t want to be facing by way of respite. Very physical, defensively tight, you can play all your shiny football but when it breaks down, they will hit you on the counter.

 

[GEORGE]

Yet again we had double the amount of shots against our opponents, but deja vu, we couldn’t take advantage.

If we had another striker that could rival Udoh then we’d be a few more points better off by now. Udoh was out for the Morecambe and Accrington games, then was forced off yesterday before HT. It’s worrying how much we rely on one single player for goals.

Bowman might have scored but he should have had atleast a double if not a hat trick. Goes through on goal in injury time and panics with a rushed attempted lob over the keeper. So frustrating!

Looks like we’re favourites to sign Cole Stockton and boy do we need him more than anybody else right now. Sign Stockton and get Udoh fit again and I’ll be happy, until then it’s just frustrating that we have almost 60 attempts across three games and score 1 goal. Ugh.

Onto Forest Green away.

The only thing you lot need are a couple more medical men to run on the pitch every time one of your players fall down on the pitch dying. In fact your medical man spent more time upright on the pitch than any of your players over the 90 mins. In 60 odd years of watching Pro football I have never ever seen anything like it. And I've watched Wycombe on numerous occasions.

 

[Muzzle]

I said the same to my mate who’s a goalkeeper himself and he said it was so close to him and hit so well that he could adjust his body position in time.

This, it was a great powerful shot, he just couldn't adjust in time

 

[Essex2Wessex]

Jeez, when a Wycombe fan hints that Shrews are all about the gamesmanship....

 

[thewwfc]

Jeez, when a Wycombe fan hints that Shrews are all about the gamesmanship....

well quite. They did it well, too.

 

[Stroud]

Last half hour was just dull, we didn't have to press so the game dropped into a lull, I'd have loved us to have kept going for it though

Loved the report from the Sheffield newspaper : -

Wednesday v Forest Green – Old friends embrace, a groundstaff meeting and the big man is back

Sheffield Wednesday romped to a 5-0 victory over Forest Green Rovers on Saturday to climb up to third in League One.

www.thestar.co.uk

The Rovers fans

Fair play to them, really. They watched their team go 3-0 down in 30 minutes right in front of them, and went into the break knowing that the tie was well and truly over.

But so many of them stuck around, carried on cheering their team on, and tried to enjoy their very first trip to Hillsborough.

They even tried to bring some comedy to their afternoon in the second half, celebrating a corner as if they’d scored as they searched for a consolation goal at 5-0.

 

[masi51]

I know a sickness bug ran through the squad, but we were poor. The passing was awful, and play like that against Wednesday and Ipswich and the result will be different. i felt both sides nullified the other a bit. Bottom line is we took our chances, Bolton did not.

Last year I was a big fan of Santos, but yesterday he was only so-so. Certainly at fault for the first, though Ennis had to do well to finish it off. Ennis must be six inches shorter and won most arial balls. Felt at the time, and the replay confirms, Trafford should have done better for Hardie’s goal. Our best goalkeeper in the league made his saves, Bolton’s best goalkeeper in the league did not. Onwards to Derby.

Fair reflection....Santos needs taking out of the firing line he is playing with a injury and it is showing
On to our keeper he is 19 and still learning so he will have his balls ups but we would not get him if he was the complete keeper. Evatt does not know his best 11 and rested both Dapo and MJ Williams who so far has been our best player alongside Dempsey and Morley.
Katchunga and Bakayoko are squad players at best. Sadlier does not seem to get a look in
We need Dapo, Charles and Bod starting most games and we will be alright