Tues 21/ Sat 25/ Sun 26 March

[valefan16]

Something's not right here. Aren't Vale the ones cheated out of a result every week?

He doesn't force them to react does he! He is about the only shithouse we have with Mad Lucas on loan at Chesterfield!

The rest of them are too soft, hence we are a massive soft touch at times.

 

[leedsvaliant]

We definitely need to review our shithousery, it was touched upon in the manager's press conference this morning. Smith is probably our only one who is any good at it. He stamps on toes, pinches and generally winds up the opposition striker until they lash out. Apart from that our slowing down of the game, feigning injury, time-wasting needs some serious work. I'd say 75% of other teams have been great at it at our place this season, including some of those near the top.

I think we need to play the ref a bit more. Burton had him in their pocket last week. Then maybe we'll get on the right side of some officials for once.

 

[leedsvaliant]

On to the game, it feels like a bit of a free hit for us with 3 winnable games to follow. Portsmouth have hit some form, so it's going to be tough, but we will no doubt have a few chances that we'll miss and then concede a soft goal, probably a deflected shot from outside of the area. I'm planning on going to the big smoke to watch Vale at Charlton on 29th April. Hopefully by then we'll be on the beach.

 

[valefan16]

We definitely need to review our shithousery, it was touched upon in the manager's press conference this morning. Smith is probably our only one who is any good at it. He stamps on toes, pinches and generally winds up the opposition striker until they lash out. Apart from that our slowing down of the game, feigning injury, time-wasting needs some serious work. I'd say 75% of other teams have been great at it at our place this season, including some of those near the top.

I think we need to play the ref a bit more. Burton had him in their pocket last week. Then maybe we'll get on the right side of some officials for once.

Yeah was raised, every time anyone farted near a Burton player their players were running up to the referee etc, Conlon gets a clothes line, free kick goes against us and no one reacts or starts a bit of a scrap. Soft as shit.

As I say all the plaudits from Ipswich and Bolton fans about how we play attacking football against them, don’t time waste and try and be honest but the fact remains we got 0 points.

We’ve been awful at it since the Micky Adams days. Wasn’t it Aspin of all people who banned our players crowding the referee!

We are an oddity on our travels mind, the only side to beat Plymouth away, beat Derby and have put in decent performances at Barnsley and Wycombe to earn a point as well as a dominant but fruitless performance at Bolton, mixed in with defeat at MK who rarely win at home, Hammered at Oxford who rarely win at home, beaten by a poor Morecambe side so your never entirely sure what your going to get!

 

[Craig]

No game for us tomorrow as Greg Leigh is on international duty with Jamaica

 

[Luke Imp]

Thankfully it sounds like Poole is back today, so that gives us an option to remain with 3 CB's.

No Erhahon after being subbed last weekend but he's been training this week and should be back for next weekend. So that's no Rushworth, Roughan, Walsh, O'Connor, Eyoma or Erhahon - 5 of those are starters!

 

[valefan16]

Smith is fit thankfully but no Forrester and Cass is still not back so we’ve moved Sammy Robinson over rather than play big Derek again by the looks of it, not ideal and need Smith and Donnelly to stay fit.

Big test for Sammy but believe he was originally a centre half.

 

[Luke Imp]

Thankfully it sounds like Poole is back today, so that gives us an option to remain with 3 CB's.

No Erhahon after being subbed last weekend but he's been training this week and should be back for next weekend. So that's no Rushworth, Roughan, Walsh, O'Connor, Eyoma or Erhahon - 5 of those are starters!

Can add Shodipo and Vernam to the list as well!

No idea what formation we're playing, we're starting with four CM's so I suspect one will end up at RB and one end up wide of a front three.

 

[kieran_vale]

Some shocking defending from Portsmouth but good for Matty Taylor getting in there. Don't buy a ticket don't win the raffle.

Portsmouth will be a threat on corners as the game goes on. Had Sammy Robinson on Hackett who is about a foot taller.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

Some shocking defending from Portsmouth but good for Matty Taylor getting in there. Don't buy a ticket don't win the raffle.

Portsmouth will be a threat on corners as the game goes on. Had Sammy Robinson on Hackett who is about a foot taller.

I'm watching the game. Portsmouth looking as poor as they were against us. Just don't gift them 2 goals like we did. No chance they are going up

 

[SF_]

I'm guessing some Prem club will probably poach Miles Leaburn off Charlton in the summer. Impressive first season.

 

[kieran_vale]

What the fuck is that Portsmouth keeper doing?

This is normally us it happens to.

 

[kieran_vale]

Penalty save by Stone. Always rated him me

 

[kieran_vale]

Good half from Vale. Portsmouth had their spells of pressure but outside of the penalty don’t think they’ve had a chance.

Taylor and Harrison have given their centre backs hell so far. Portsmouth seem a bit taken aback how we’ve come at them but that’s how we approach these games as we tried at Derby, Plymouth and Bolton. One thing that might be a challenge is all our centre backs on yellows, two of which for dissent.

 

[valefan16]

Stressful half. Portsmouths centre halves and keeper are absolutely cloggers and Taylor and Harrison are causing them all sorts of problems with their movement.

That said two real cock ups for the goals, first one the bald lad gets it caught under his feet 4 yards out, second one the keeper who’s been all over the place and dropped virtually any cross lost his head, blocked by Taylor and didn’t even attempt to save the shot from Ojo.

Referee is the usual dreadful self, booked Donnelly for asking why it wasn’t a corner, booked Sammy for pretty much a nothing tackle and the penalty was meh, felt justice was done there with the save.

Long second half to go especially with the back three on yellows and this referee but do feel could be more goals for us in this if they defend like they have.

 

[valefan16]

Three points thrown away.

 

[kieran_vale]

Was a very clumsy bit of work from Harrison for their penalty and gave them the momentum they never had before. Going to find out a lot about this Vale team in the last 15 minutes now.

This Portsmouth keeper looks an accident waiting to happen so still an opportunity for us to win it.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

Was a very clumsy bit of work from Harrison for their penalty and gave them the momentum they never had before. Going to find out a lot about this Vale team in the last 15 minutes now.

This Portsmouth keeper looks an accident waiting to happen so still an opportunity for us to win it.

Harrison was always decent in defence for headers but anything else a bit of a liability

 

[kieran_vale]

Harrison was always decent in defence for headers but anything else a bit of a liability

Yeah bang on with that. It’s always noticeable the difference in our set piece defending when he is on the pitch.

That was a fun game though. Will feel like 2 points dropped but no complaints with a draw. Think we take a lot of credit from it but so do Portsmouth after Lowery came on. Good luck to Portsmouth the rest of the way.

 

[valefan16]

I’d have snapped your hand off for that before but absolutely furious we have managed to throw two points away there, but again bar the penalty and goal they didn’t create much and we’ve still conceded two goals!

Kicking ourselves there.

 

[Trapdoor]

We've been threatening that for a while now. Accrington got fisted today and it could have been 7.

 

[HutchECFC]

That'll do.

Nombe could have had 4/5, could have quite easily been 8/9. We've been due to give somebody a spanking, and today was it. Stanno finally getting his goal in front of the Big Bank - could see how emotional he was, been a long time coming.

Accrington taking the award for poorest team to come to SJP, genuinely think I could have got 11 lads off the street and given them a game. Jensen was their best player.

Now for the nice easy game of Barnsley (H) on Tuesday...

 

[codaplenty]

Good win by Fleetwood and well deserved. Jayden Stockley is a class act but Phoenix Patterson coming on in the 2nd half changed the game, direct running at their defense causing real problems and quality crosses -definetly one for next season. Lincoln are a decent team with some nice touches but never really threatened

 

[thewwfc]

We were poor today from an attacking perspective, started off brightly but then Charlton got a lot more into the game and were ploughing freely down the wings and having a lot of joy - I remember Rak-Sakyi being class the last time he faced us, but Campbell also did plenty of damage.

It seemed to get quite heated out there, a lot more handbags and shoving than usual, not sure why.

In the end we were reliant on a set piece for an equaliser, given how otherwise poor we were on the attack.

But a point doesn’t do us too many favours, we seem to have racked up a bunch of injuries of late and they’re kicking in at just the wrong time.

Oh well, still plenty to play for, but I feel our chances of that elusive 6th spot slipping week by week.

 

[leedsvaliant]

Good game of football today. Thought we were better first half (obviously) but Portsmouth substitutions made the difference (especially Lowry), which shows how a deep squad can really help at this level. I'm not sure why they didn't play that team from the start as their two centre halves and goalkeeper were appalling in that first half. The Pompey keeper looked dreadful, hesitant and very nervous..is he always like that?

I know it seems that we always go on about refs but where do they drag them from? Booked 5 of ours and none of Pompey, and I can't really figure out what any of them were for. If you're going to give that 1st penalty, then you might as well give 5 or 6 that occur in every match...absolute joke of a decision. Second one, the player went down very easily but it was asking for trouble from Harrison. The home bias was ridiculous at times really.

It's a shame because although Pompey had huffed and puffed up to that point, I don't believe that our keeper had had anything to do. Even at 2-2 I felt like we could have gone on to win the game and it would have been a sickener if Stone hadn't made a great save near the end. I was disappointed that we drew, but also encouraged that we again took the game to a team with a budget that dwarfs ours significantly. We go out to win and not park the bus and hope for a draw.

Cracking following down there considering our form and the fact we haven't got much to play for.

Both teams will be in this league next season. Decent club are Pompey, with a good supporter base and a proper traditional old ground......more of those types of clubs wanted in this league.

 

[kieran_vale]

Good game of football today. Thought we were better first half (obviously) but Portsmouth substitutions made the difference (especially Lowry), which shows how a deep squad can really help at this level. I'm not sure why they didn't play that team from the start as their two centre halves and goalkeeper were appalling in that first half. The Pompey keeper looked dreadful, hesitant and very nervous..is he always like that?

I know it seems that we always go on about refs but where do they drag them from? Booked 5 of ours and none of Pompey, and I can't really figure out what any of them were for. If you're going to give that 1st penalty, then you might as well give 5 or 6 that occur in every match...absolute joke of a decision. Second one, the player went down very easily but it was asking for trouble from Harrison. The home bias was ridiculous at times really.

It's a shame because although Pompey had huffed and puffed up to that point, I don't believe that our keeper had had anything to do. Even at 2-2 I felt like we could have gone on to win the game and it would have been a sickener if Stone hadn't made a great save near the end. I was disappointed that we drew, but also encouraged that we again took the game to a team with a budget that dwarfs ours significantly. We go out to win and not park the bus and hope for a draw.

Cracking following down there considering our form and the fact we haven't got much to play for.

Both teams will be in this league next season. Decent club are Pompey, with a good supporter base and a proper traditional old ground......more of those types of clubs wanted in this league.

Donnelly definitely got one for dissent as he was claiming for a corner when the ref gave a goalkick. Robinsons looked like it was for the same as he started wagging his finger and saying something towards the ref after he got called for a foul. Can’t remember the other ones. The penalties I don’t have much problem with in all honesty. Smith is known for getting a bit handsy on opposition players so the ref probably gave that based on his reputation. Live by the sword, die by the sword and all that. Harrison’s was what you’d call a typical forwards challenge.

 

[leedsvaliant]

Donnelly definitely got one for dissent as he was claiming for a corner when the ref gave a goalkick. Robinsons looked like it was for the same as he started wagging his finger and saying something towards the ref after he got called for a foul. Can’t remember the other ones. The penalties I don’t have much problem with in all honesty. Smith is known for getting a bit handsy on opposition players so the ref probably gave that based on his reputation. Live by the sword, die by the sword and all that. Harrison’s was what you’d call a typical forwards challenge.

Yep, Harrison asking for trouble with flying into a challenge there. The first is as soft as they come and I've seen defenders do much more to Smith on a regular basis. I have no issue with refs giving penalties for that sort of stuff per se, but it must be consistent. In today's game you could probably give another 4 penalties for similar instances. If they're going to clamp down on it then clamp down on ALL. Again, Pompey committed a couple of bookable challenges but didn't receive a single yellow card. The Donnelly card was a joke because it was a corner...you can't book someone for calling out an incorrect decision.

No doubt about it, the ref was a real homer today.

 

[valefan16]

The bookings were strange and can see why DC was unhappy with the decisions, at least be consistent, lowery screamed in frustration at the referee over a decision yet Donnelly and Sammy get booked for wagging a finger and asking the question?

Not to mention Smith got shoved by the throat and no card? Yet Smith gets a card for a shove in the back!

First pen is one of them you don’t usually get, but second was wreckless, it was the only way they were going to get back in it and Harrison should of just stood him up. We were pretty much coasting at that point and rarely seemed to be in danger which in itself was surprising as I was expecting them to really come at us second half… even more so at 2-2 they never really put much pressure on to win it.

Frustrating. Similar to Fleetwood but it’s a point before the game we didn’t expect. Thought our makeshift defence is the main did ok especially Sammy, even Mal had a good game, to go there and put in a performance with the injuries we have at the back and Garrity is pleasing.

Ojo is class.

 

[Don Tonberry]

Absolute atrocious first half from Pompey today. I literally cannot remember a first half at Fratton Park where the performance has been that bad. Outright awful defending for the first goal - the ball could have been cleared before it got to Ogilvie who dropped a clanger. Less said about the second goal, the better. Macey has been really good up until today but he had a stinker.

Totally unsure why the first penalty was given. A supposed shove? We were all confused and equally annoyed when Bishop made it easy for the keeper as he's usually reliable from the spot as he proved when he buried the second. I thought we might go on and win it after the second goal but it would have been harsh on Vale after we didn't turn up in the first half but Lowery changed the game. I do wonder how many more points we'd have if he hadn't missed half the season with injury.

That result puts to bed any lingering thoughts we had of a late play-off push and we should focus on strengthening for next season now. I feel we need a quality goalkeeper, centre back, left back and two wingers if we want to challenge at the top next year. It has been yet another frustrating season with no progress on the pitch.

 

[kieran_vale]

Absolute atrocious first half from Pompey today. I literally cannot remember a first half at Fratton Park where the performance has been that bad. Outright awful defending for the first goal - the ball could have been cleared before it got to Ogilvie who dropped a clanger. Less said about the second goal, the better. Macey has been really good up until today but he had a stinker.

Totally unsure why the first penalty was given. A supposed shove? We were all confused and equally annoyed when Bishop made it easy for the keeper as he's usually reliable from the spot as he proved when he buried the second. I thought we might go on and win it after the second goal but it would have been harsh on Vale after we didn't turn up in the first half but Lowery changed the game. I do wonder how many more points we'd have if he hadn't missed half the season with injury.

That result puts to bed any lingering thoughts we had of a late play-off push and we should focus on strengthening for next season now. I feel we need a quality goalkeeper, centre back, left back and two wingers if we want to challenge at the top next year. It has been yet another frustrating season with no progress on the pitch.

Agreed with Lowery coming on being the turning point. Could see the pendulum swing towards Portsmouth straight away. Plenty of things both teams can take positive and that need work.

Noticed both Vale and Portsmouth (among many other teams in this league) have fallen into that whole thing now on goal kicks of getting two people back in the area and wanting to play it short. At some point some of these teams need to remember they are third division clubs not City or Barca.