En underholdende kamp endte med sæsonens første nederlag på udebane mod Notts County.
Pompey startede som ventet i 4-2-3-1 men med Tubbs på bænken.
Begge hold ville frem på banen, så der var underholdning nok, og det var gæsterne der tidligt satte sig på kampen. Lidt over 2.000 Pompeyfans var taget med, og de så to gode chancer i starten af kampen, først Webster med hovedet efter et hjørne og siden Evans der blev sat godt op. Men nordiske landsholdskeeper Carrol, var hurtig ude af målet og reddede.
Så kom hjemmeholdet ind i kampen, og den tidligere Pompeyspiller McLeod gjorde sit for at komme på scoringslisten.
Det var Pompey der kom foran først da Lavery vi har på lån scorede sit første mål for Pompey, da han udnyttede et godt oplæg fra Enda Stevens.
Føringen holdt kun i kort tid, en clearing fra Webster kom ikke langt nok væk, og fra kanten af feltet, satte Burke den til 1-1.
Så kom dagens højdepunkt, Webster tog bolden med frem, og bragede kuglen afsten, men desværre reddede træværket
Masser af underholdning og chancer, og desværre levede kampen ikke op til samme niveau efter pausen.
Kyle Bennet, som kan så meget, men som ikke helt har leveret, ja han mente nok han skulle have haft straffe, og det mente Pompeyfansene ligeså.
Men nej, og da Pompey ikke rigtig kunne bryde igennem, ja så blev det et frispark sat ind fra Sheehan.
Tiden løb ud for Pompey, selvom Tubbs kom på banen, mend et var overraskende nok for Lavery. Mon ikke de fleste gerne havde set Pompey med to mand på toppen.
Pompey matte tabe på udebane, og blot 2 nederlag I 16 kampe, er ingen katastrofe.
Pompey har vist sig som et hold der er spilstyrende, og holdet har på ingen måde været spillet ud af banen.
Kunsten er at få skabt chancerne og sat flere bolde i kassen.
Mange en fans er nok lettere frustreret over at Pompey ikke får bonus med det spilovertag de har.
Næste kamp er er FA Cup kamp, det kan både være godt og skidt med en pause
Pompey manager Paul Cook:
«I felt it was a good game of football. I thought we played well, Unfortunately we couldn’t win and we’ve got to be better.
«It meant a lot to Notts County to beat us today, they worked hard, they’ve done well.
«Success doesn’t come in a day or a week unfortunately for us all with football. It’s a lot of hard work and it’s a lot of mistakes; if you look at our players today we certainly made some mistakes and we hopefully will learn from them.»
Kommentarer fra The News:
PC, brilliant start to the season but this was bound to happen sometime, this league is going to be a tight league, games are won by scoring goals and winning games not by avoiding defeat and having 70% possession every game ening in a draw etc. need more wins, At the start of the season we all would have taken this but with the potential and the poor teams wehave played I feel we are missing opportunities to pull away. 2 defeats all season and we are 3rd, but how many games have we won. away form has kept us in touch with the leaders we need to up the home form to compensate any dip in away form, I have faith in PC but why bring on Tubbs chaplin with just minutes to try and get a draw at best against another poor team. Hopefully this away loss can be the kick up the backside due . PUP
Not very good today – and, in my opinion, the away loss has been coming for some time…..a half-decent keeper would not have conceded that second goal!!
Frustrated again… We must work their keeper more. There were times again second half when there was just one in the box to cross to…. A cracker from Webbo who was unlucky not to score… We need more of that next week as well as being set up more offensively… Surely it’s the time to try 442 at home next week… Today’s loss wouldn’t be so bad if we’d won more at home… I’ve said it before but these dropped points could be the difference between an automatic promotion place and a play off place come the end of the season… Let them loose next week Cooky…
As I have been saying the away form couldn’t last forever but suddenly it’s only 2 points out of the last 9, and we are now 7 points behind the leaders and there are plenty of teams in and around us. It will be interesting to see if mr. Cook now starts to go 442 at home although I suspect that he won’t. What is a little concerning is that the other better teams don’t seem to be having any trouble scoring goals against teams we seem to struggle to score against. We remain third and it’s a long season but I really do feel we have to go for it more at home as if you want automatic promotion you win your home games and score some goals. Let’s hope we come back strong from this. Big month coming up for Pompey. Pup
Leauge Two, Meadow Lane, 31/10-15
Notts County-Portsmouth 2-1 (1-1)
20 min 0-1 Lavery
23 min 1-1 Burke
77 min 2-1 Sheehan
Pompey (4-2-3-1): Murphy; Davies, Burgess, Webster, Stevens; Hollands, Doyle (c); Evans, McGurk (Chaplin 67), Bennett (Tollitt 76); Lavery (Tubbs 80)
Gule kort: Burgess
Bænken: Bass, Clarke, Atangana, Naismith, Chaplin, Tllit, Tubbs
Tilskuere: 6,917 (2,162 Pompey fans)