Naismith med vinderen og Pompey kan gå videre i farcen af en cup.
AV: Steen Houman
Bo Kaspers Orkester har en sang der hedder Allt ljus på mig, og den følelse måtte Pompeys angriber Michael Smith have haft.
For tidligt i kampen, fik han tilkæmpet sig et straffe, og angriberen der ikke har overbevist i denne sæson, ja han fik en gylden mulighed for at score fra 11 meter pletten.
Men den store angriber brændte, så fra at være manden i spotlight, ja så blev det til bøjet hoved for Smith der nok kunne have brugt et mål til at booste selvtilliden.
Inden straffet, ja der kom en udskiftning som fortæller lidt om det som af en del betragtes som en farce!
For reglerne i EFL trophy er at der skal være 5 spillere i start XI fra spillerne der normalt starter.
Så Bristol Rovers, ja de lod deres normale keeper starte inde, og efter første spilstop, ja så blev han skiftet ud og reservekeeperen fik spilletid.
Bristol Rovers var nu holdet med flest i afslutninger før pausen, og de havde da også en afslutning på træværket, mod et Pompeyhold der havde 8 nye spillere til start i forhold til forrige kamp.
Whatmough MOM
Interessant var det just på centerbackpladserne, hvor det blev Whatmough og Davies. Whatmough blev af The News kåret til MOM.
Sammen med O’Brien holdte de nullet i kampen. Spændende om hvad det betyder for næste ligakamp! Hvem får genvalg!
Der var ligeså gensyn med Drew Talbot på højreback, hans første kamp siden alutningen af august hvor han var ude med skade.
Bristol Rovers kunne gå til pausen med 0-0, vel vidende at de havde haft flest afslutninger blandt andet en på stolpen og en lige over mål, Pompey havde udover det brændte straffe og et langskud fra Naismith ikke rigtig haft noget!
0-0, ville ligeså måske være nok til at sende Bristol Rovers videre i turneringen.
De 1.200 tilskuere på Fratton Park, ja EFL Trophy er ikke en populær turnering, fik en lidt mere livlig 2.halvleg, hvor Pompey kom mere med og fik skabt flere chancer. 1.200 er iøvrigt ny rekord lav antal tilskuere til en kamp efter 2.verdenskrig.
Bedst som de fleste troede den ville ende 0-0 i det begyndende snevjer, ja så fik Naismith bolden og fra 30-35 meter ude, sendte han bolden i mål.
Keeperen havde dog fået en advarsel kort inden, da Naismith, havde et frispark der gik lige over!
Dermed vandt Pompey 1-0, og fik en sejr, hvilket på mange måder var tiltrængt. Afhængig af resultatet af den anden gruppekamp, ja så kan Pompey faktisk gå videre, men det kræver at Reading U23 vinder deres kamp, og 1-0 er vist ikke nok!
Player Ratings
Liam O’Brien: Solid – 7
Drew Talbot: Encouraging return – 7
Tom Davies: Showed battling qualities – 7
Jack Whatmough: Made it look so easy –8
Adam Buxton (2): Steady enough – 7
Ben Close (1): Thrived with captaincy – 8
Amine Linganzi: Covered so much ground – 8
Milan Lalkovic: Disappointing in possession – 6
Kyle Bennett (3): Couldn’t get involved – 6
Kal Naismith: Another wonder goal – 8
Michael Smith: Desperately needs a boost – 5 Subs:
Subs:
(1) Danny Rose (73min): Added steel – 6
(2) Gareth Evans (73min): Little time to get involved – 5
(3) Noel Hunt (77min)
Pompey manager Paul Cook:
‘Last night’s result was important and great for confidence.
‘If you lose four games on the spin and go into Saturday’s game, that’s not good.
‘But I just want people not to outline the last week or two. We have played 15 games, we haven’t played four, we haven’t won two away and one at home, it is 15 league games.
‘The reality is we have a great opportunity this year, we are looking upwards and we want to take those strides forward now.
‘After two cup matches we go into the league campaign now. We have so much in front of us it is untrue, and what we can’t do is allow any type of negativity.
‘It’s nice for everyone to be back playing, the minutes on the pitch does everyone the world of good.
‘It was a good game, games should be competitive, Saturday’s wasn’t, especially in the first half.
‘Bristol Rovers are an excellent side and on an excellent run with Darrell Clarke, they came with a decent team.
‘We have seen at times in our lads the nervousness in our play. We have to get away from that, we have to get the shackles off and become what I want us to be and what our supporters want us to be.
‘That will get us to where we want to go.’
Bristol Rovers manager Darrel Clarke:
«The competition has had a lot of stick and rightly so,»
«It has been a good competition in the past with a trip to Wembley as reward at the end of it.
«They (EFL) have certainly got a lot of things wrong with the changes they have made to the competition this year.
«It is farcical having to come to play a game against a great club like Portsmouth in a great stadium that has nobody in it. I’m sure the EFL will go back to the drawing board and look at it again for next season.»
Kommentarer fra The News
Sorry was I at the same match? Close poor, Buxton poor, Naismith poor (apart from goal), Smith unbelievable, Linganzi dithered too much on the ball – I could go on. I appreciate trying to put a positive spin on this but the game was dreadful and we were outplayed for long periods. The goal and possibly Whatmough and Davis were the only positives.
Make ya mind up Cook.. Silly shitatrade cup win n ya pleased.. FA cup loss not important BUT YA WANTED A FA CUP RUN N LOST..???? Mate, it’s a joke, all is a bit of a joke.. !!!!! Make ya mind up, employ someone that can show you n has a plan b please coz you ain’ t cuttin it fella.. Win in the crappest cup ever n ya happy…??? Lose in league n praise other team…???? REALLY HAD ENOUGH…..
EFL Trophy, Fratton Park, 8/11-2016
Portsmouth – Bristol Rovers 1-0 (0-0)
88 min 1-0 Kal Naismith
Portsmouth (4-2-3-1): O’Brien; Talbot, Davies, Whatmough, Buxton; Linganzi, Close (C); Naismith, Bennett, Lalkovic; Smith
Bænken: Hall, Hyam, Clarke, Rose, Evans, Hunt, Chaplin
Gult kort: Bennett, Davies
Tilskuere: 1.200 (65 away fans)