En træmand kom i vejen.

18 år og keeper, det er ikke altid garanti for spilletid. Men Newcastles unge Freddie Newman er på lån hos Crawley i denne sæson, og han har fået trøje nummer 1.

Han er på det engelske U19 landshold, og med den indsats han leverede i 0-0 kampen mod Pompey, så er det et navn, vi godt kan bide mærke i.

Han var hovedårsagen til at Pompey ikke fik scoret og måtte nøjes med 0-0.

Skarpe ude på banen

Pompey kom ud af starthullerne og satte tryk på, godt bakket op af de mange fans, der kunne høres igennem hele kampen, og Crawley måtte arbejde hårdt.
På dansk har vi udtrykket at man parkere en bus foran feltet, og det var hvad Crawley gjorde.

Efter de første 45 min, der hed possesion 65/35 i Pompeyfavør og skudstatistik sagde 8-2 igen i Pompey favør.

Mål søges.

Efter pausen fortsatte tendensen, igen med Pompey i total kontrol og Crawley meget arbejdssom foran eget mål.

I løbet af kampen var der mange muligheder, men unge Woodmann, ja han stod bare godt og Pompey måtte nøjes med det ene point.

Vores livlige højreback Davies måtte udgå i kampen, han har været en vigtig brik for Pompey, så lad os se hvad Pompeychefen vælger at gøre.

Matt Tubbs kom ikke på måltavlen, men blev faktisk klappet af banen af hjemmeholdets fans.

Izale McLeod var for 4.kamp end ikke på bænken, faktisk var der plads til en mere, manager Mark Yeates er ude med et tydeligt budskab må man sige.

Pompey manager Paul Cook:

‘I always felt we would score, I felt we would wear them down in the end.

‘It was great distances their lads were having to cover and if you keep moving the ball properly, eventually you can open them up and put quality crosses into the box.

‘Unfortunately it didn’t happen, but that’s life.

‘We just lacked that physicality in the box which 4-4-2 gives you and that will always be a debate for people over a pint, but the more direct you go sometimes can lead to other spaces for us to concede goals.

‘We must be patient, the hardest part is getting up there quicker and we tried, we brought Conor Chaplin on, while Jayden Stockley looks really lively at the minute and full of energy and life.

‘You have to keep telling the players to be patient because they want to take quick throw-ins and chase the ball and what it does is lead us to being out of position and not set. When we are set we are in complete control.

Crawley manager Mark Yeates:

“For me, they will win the league,” Yates said of Pompey. “They have the best manager in the league and the best players by far and the way they play is fantastic. It’s really pleasing on the eye.

“They have recruited brilliantly; players that can get them out of this division. I fully expect them to be champions come the end of the season.

“We have some walking wounded out there; players with big knocks and a really small squad. And I apologise to my players that our recruitment hasn’t been what I would have liked it to have been, which is no fault of our own or mine, other than trying to do the best we can with what we have got.

“We are a massive work in progress. We have the five toughest games you could ever imagine at the start of the season and I want to come out of those games with as many points as possible.

“There was no point me going toe-to-toe with these [Portsmouth] and them opening us up. Maybe later in the season when we are a little bit more used to how I want to play.

“This was a really hard, battling performance. It was disciplined and we worked tirelessly to keep a team who, for me are going to get up, to just one shot from 30 yards.”

Kommentarer fra The News:

This is what we will be facing, home and away, as the season progresses. We just have to figure out how to deal with it. If we play 2 up the possession stats will suffer. A bigger striker would be good but until we have one we can improve the quality of our final balls and remain patient. Webster at RB would do little for his improving confidence, or mine. At RB he is drawn to the penalty area like a magnet, allowing crosses to flow without challenge.

Its a good result from a broader perspective. We wont win every game but evidence of progress is to convert (previous) losses to draws and draws to wins. Good start, clean sheet, very positive, good style of football. There is an argument for an out and out centre forward (Ruben Reid et al?) and worth the money but no complaints at all here

I was also there. Enjoyed the game style we play and still cannot believe how much we have changed all power to the Board and Cookie and staff for that.

My observations are 4-2-3-1 is effective when we have someone up front who can be a threat for crosses coming in when teams sit back like Crawley did.
Tubbs has a role to play especially if/when cookie switches to 4-4-2 or when the team we are playing do not park the bus for 90 minutes.

Tubbs movement is very good and he does find little gaps we either have to get it to him quicker or if we cant find an alternative striker who can be an aerial threat as well as goal scorer. They however cost a lot of money and are not found on trees!!!

Shame about Davies if Cookie doesnt get in a replacement in time for Saturday I would not put Webster there, maybe work on Evans playing there for the game?

The full backs play almost like wingers anyway.

The most amazing thing from last night was how the crawley players and fans celebrated at the end. If Pompey went down that route at home that Crawley did there would be uproar, quite rightly so.

Inevitably the ‘lone’ striker under the system favoured by Paul Cook is going to come under a lot of scrutiny, especially in view of Crawleys ‘park the bus’ tactics last night which will likely be copied by others, and views will vary as to who is best in that role. As I’ve posted elsewhere it won’t have escaped Paul Cooks attention that in the 4 games played so far there has not been a goal scored from ‘open’ play by either of the strikers who have played in that role. With goal scoring chances at a premium does PC stick with what he has or will he feel the need to twist and bring in that much rumoured additional striker? Food for thought maybe in the remaining days of the transfer window.

League Two, Broadfield Stadium, 18/8-2015

Crawley-Portsmouth 0-0

Pompey (4-2-3-1): Murphy; Davies (McGurk 52), Burgess, Clarke, Stevens; Atangana, Doyle (c); Evans, Roberts, Bennett (Chaplin 81); Tubbs (Stockley 81)

Bænken: Jones, Webster, Haunstrup, Hollands, McGurk, Chaplin, Stockley

Gult kort: Ingen

Tilskuere: 4,003 (1,706 Pompey fans)

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Under video med høydepunkter fra kampen, videointervjuer og flere bilder: