Pompey Crimes

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Dr Bob
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Pompey Crimes

Post by Dr Bob »

A red card that plenty of people thought was not. A yellow that was the clearest red I can imagine. An away keeper timewasting for most of the 105 minutes. A good chunk of the first half where Pompey players lost their heads. A good chunk of the second half where Oxford players shot wildly rather than keeping their heads and playing calmly. Then two screamers to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Sometimes I hate my football team! What a roller-coaster.

Not sure, but not surprised, about the red - but the back of the SSU next to the RadOx commentators is not the best position to see clearly. Sykes' immediate reaction was clear to see, but of course he was also wearing yellow, so perhaps not the most objective. Their Number 9s flying forearm smash on Moore was so blatant, yet I could see the ref immediately take out a yellow, some time before he actually waved it. Did the ref regret giving the earlier red?

Defensively, I was immediately concerned when Brown missed the header that led to their first. And when they scored their second, he was over in McNally's position, leaving a huge gaping hole on the left. Switching to three at the back was apparently planned, but with Long out, putting a new arrival in there was perhaps dodgy. But is that too harsh on the new boy? This was made worse by having Seddon at left wing back. It is all very well saying that WB suits him better, but surely the 3-5-2 formation only works effectively in defence if the WBs drop back when the opposition are attacking?

But hey, what a finish. After so much timewasting, it was heart-warming to see those two shots fly past their keeper. With other teams hitting form ahead of us (Franchise), and behind us (several), the recent jump in our GD looks like being really valuable as teams close up.

Anybody heard from those in the know about what actually happened in the tunnel at half-time? Somehow the wall of silence from the two managers does not convince...
slappy
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Re: Pompey Crimes

Post by slappy »

I missed the Wycombe game due to Covid.
But since then what a run of four games.
Beating Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 , Gillingham 7-2 with those 4 (four) penalties, a creditable draw away at Wigan on my first visit to the DW stadium after the earlier postponement. Yes we played the gamesmanship second half to run the clock down. But I saw one of the best goals of the season.

Then beating Pompey 3-2. Should have been a lot easier playing vs ten men but we got there in the end. Two great strikes to level to 2-2 and then the winner.

We are comfortably clear of Pompey in the table but Rotherham and Wigan look fairly settled for top2 now that Wigan are out of the FA Cup.

Are we good enough to win the play -offs ? I think we can up our game this time in front of a crowd.

Still a lot of games to go but we don’t have to play any top 6 for a few weeks at least. Please don’t drop points unnecessarily.
Kernow Yellow
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Re: Pompey Crimes

Post by Kernow Yellow »

slappy wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 5:16 pm Are we good enough to win the play -offs ? I think we can up our game this time in front of a crowd.

Still a lot of games to go but we don’t have to play any top 6 for a few weeks at least. Please don’t drop points unnecessarily.
At least three of the current top nine are going to miss out on the play-offs altogether- maybe more if Pompey and/or Bolton go on a concerted run of form. There are some big names up there - Wycombe and MK Dons are the only smaller clubs than Us with play-off hopes. Wigan and Rotherham aside, our rivals are similarly consistent results-wise too. So I think making the play-offs is far from a given, let alone winning them. Having said that, if we do get there I'm more confident that we won't get turned over the way we did against Blackpool. We rarely lose by two goals, let alone three. But we do concede too many to make what happens from here on much less than a lottery.

Still, competing consistently around the top of this league is a big improvement on the previous 20 years. And the games are pretty entertaining. So I'm not complaining.
Dr Bob
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Re: Pompey Crimes

Post by Dr Bob »

Kernow Yellow wrote: Wed Feb 16, 2022 10:57 am Still, competing consistently around the top of this league is a big improvement on the previous 20 years. And the games are pretty entertaining. So I'm not complaining.
To distract myself from Bolton's late goal on the drive home, I pondered the question of where I felt our par level is currently. I think that, without significant investment, we are there - as you say, being in the promotion mix out of the third division, contributing to entertaining games.
slappy
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Re: Pompey Crimes

Post by slappy »

The last three home games have all finished 3-2, with the winning team having to come from behind. Now that's entertainment.
Slightly disappointing to see Bolton lose 3-1 in the game after the Lord Mayor's show, that late defeat on Saturday wouldn't have felt so bad if they had got a good win at Burton.
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