Nederlag til Exeter igen igen.

Pompey mistede førstepladsen i League Two da de hjemme foran små 16.000 tilskuere tabte med 1-2 til Exeter, hvilket var første gang i 92 år, at de vandt på Fratton Park.

Just Exeter der ligeså sendte Pompey ud af JPT cuppen, så skal de være Pompeys onde ånd i denne sæson.

Der var intet der tydede på at det ville ende med et hjemmebanenederlag på Fratton Park, for Pompey kom stormende ud og satte tryk på Exeter, der havde mere end travlt med at forsvare sig

Men bedst som hjemmeholdet ventede på en scoring og havde set deres dygtige keeper Oljenik hive et par gode redninger ud af ærmet.

Bagud

Efter små 20 min kom dukkerten, Exeter der ikke havde haft bolden meget, kom pludselig med 120 km/t i et kontra angreb da Hollands tabte bolden, og vupti førte de kampen. Det trak luften lidt ud af Pompey.

Efter pausen var det samme mønster, Pompey startede med optimisme og energi, og Exeter måtte igen se sig trykket godt tilbage på banen.

0-2 målet kom efter hvad Pompey mente var et frispark, men den mistede bold betød angreb til Exeter, og så førte de med 0-2 efter McCarey havde reddet bolden først, men riposten blev headet ind

Paul Cook mente dette om situationen:

With Evans, it looks a foul but referees do their best. We are not going to blame the referee for the result.

Pompey forsøgte og forsøgte og Cook smed Tubbs på banen, og han brændte et hovedstød fra 5 meter.

I overtiden, fik Pompey reduceret med hvad der viste sig at være det sidste spark i kampen.

14 afslutninger havde Pompey og hele 9 hjørnespark, så der blev skabt chancer, Pompey var bare ikke skarpe på dagen, som ellers havde gode chancer og et par redninger på stregen fra Exeter

10 kampe har Pompey spillet, med et pointsnit på 1,9. Det er et snit der kan sikre oprykning. Sidste sæso var 85 point nok til at rykke op, eller et snit på 1,84.

Pompey manager Paul Cook:

‘We did great last night, nothing wrong. It was one of our better performances and that’s two good performances on the run,’ said Cook.

‘Unfortunately, it wasn’t our night and you have just got to accept it. We lost and we have got to move on.

‘It was actually one of our best performances at home, without a shadow of a doubt.

‘We had 70-per-cent possession, created loads of chances and put loads of balls into the box. If you keep chopping and changing you don’t get continuity and we have to be consistent in what we do.

‘It’s a difficult league. Leyton Orient have just gone six games without a win and they’ve had a great start to the season.

‘Football is a tough game, teams are having tough times and we are no different.

Exeter manager Paul Tisdale:

First, we’d just lost our last two, and it stopped us from making that three. The second was that we hadn’t won here since 1923, which I read in the programme before the game. For those reasons I was delighted to win. 

“Fratton Park is a great place to come and play football, and always presents a great challenge. It was a big game for us, and we did the job. 

“Right from the first minute, the travelling fans got behind us, and that double-block within the first few minutes may have been one of the most important, if not the most important, moments in the game. The players stuck to their jobs and kept their discipline. 

“We’ve been here the past two years and taken Portsmouth on and opened things up and come away with nothing. We could have done that again, but having just lost two games, it was too important for us to take any chances today, and we played a very disciplined game. 

“Sometimes there’s no harm in not having the ball; you can set yourself up to attack the game without the ball. It was a real tussle; not a performance that we’d usually give, but one that was needed. We deserved the three points.”

Kommentarer fra The News:

Never has the phrase «one of those nights» been so apt. Regardless of individual errors leading to goals, poor refereeing decisions etc. I don’t think we were ever going to get anything last night. 

The way the ball was (or was not) falling for us and bouncing away, the way Exeter put bodies on the line all night, the wonder save for Chaplin’s chance and when Matt Tubbs misses a free header in the 6-yard box you know its not going to be your night. 

There are many positives though, we created 5/6 good chances, probably more than any other home game this season. Also, Bennett looked very lively again and was a thorn in Exeter’s side all evening. We didn’t look troubled at the back apart from their 2 lucky goals. 

We kept going right until the final whistle, last season we would have given up at 2-0. If we somehow nicked a goal 5 mins earlier then we did then we would have got a point no doubt. Another bonus is we go straight into another winnable home game this Saturday. 

We were never going to go unbeaten for much longer and a defeat is always around the corner. I’m going to risk the thumbs down merchants here and say that I’m expecting to lose a couple on the bounce now as that’s just how football works, obviously I hope I’m wrong. But I still think we will be comfortably promoted automatically.

One final point, I think Tisdale is on a wind up saying they had a successful game plan. They were probably more shocked to be 2-0 up then we were! Hence why their players were still bricking in and sitting behind the ball when they were 2-0 up! 

Looking forward to Saturday

Last night was a timely reminder of the challenge it will be to get promotion from this league. There are good managers with tactical nous and enough quality in their teams to make life very difficult for us. Having a management team and some players who have achieved promotions with other teams will stand us in good stead i’m sure. It is going to be a very competitive league indeed. Wycombe who just missed out last year are my favourites from the other teams to secure automatic promotion. Usually a promoted team will have a main striker scoring 18-25 goals in a season, we have one of those in Tubbs but have been unable to find the system to give him the best opportunity to shine. Roberts will get double figures if he is fit enough to play regularly and others will and already have chipped in but a cutting edge main striker is essential. However it’s early days for Pompey and in some areas there is still a rawness in their play. All i know is compared to last season it’s chalk and cheese comparing the quality of football and entertainment on offer. Looking forward to seeing Naismith play at some point and see what he can add to the team. 10 games 19 points i’d have taken that before the season started.

Pompey on the whole played quite well and without Hollands mistake we would have taken all 3 points and remained on top of the pile. . . at least that is what I think.
As for Tubbs, I think Cookie has marked his card – you don’t meddle with last seasons top goal scorer without a reason.
Cookie is hard headed but in the game of management I think you have to be.

Yeovil will be a very interesting game. . . very interesting in deed.
4 day’s ago Leyton Orient were top of the pile and are now down to 5th and are now struggling .
One thing for sure, league 2 sure is a bugger.

Did anyone else notice there doesn’t seem to be any love lost between Bennett and Tubbs?

League Two, Fratton Park, 29/9-15

Portsmouth-Exeter 1-2 (0-1)

20. min. 0-1 Wheeler

56. min. 0-2 Davies

93. min. 1-2 Roberts

Pompey (4-2-3-1): McCarey; Davies (c), Burgess, Clarke, Stevens; Barton, Hollands (Doyle 81); Evans (Roberts 66), Chaplin (Tubbs 55), Bennett; Stockley

Gult kort: Burgess, Bennett

Bænken: Bass, Webster, Atangana, Naismith, Doyle, Roberts, Tubbs

Tilskuere: 15,822 (313 away fans)