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Med 0-0 hos Exeter har vi nu blot taget to point af ni mulige fra de seneste tre kampe, og forfølgerne ånder os i nakken. Vi er stadig etter i League One, men forspringet ned til Bolton på andenpladsen er nu blot to points, og The Trotters har en kamp i baghånden.
Der var to ændringer i startelleveren denne aften. Paddy Lane fik chancen i stedet for Abu Kamara mens Terry Devlin startede på bekostning af Joe Morrell.
Den officielle kamprapport
Eftertanken
Efter en stribe kampe, hvor vi var forholdsvis effektive i front må vi konstatere, at vi i de seneste tre har haft svært ved at omsætte chancer til mål. Det har kostet på pointtavlen. En spiller som lignede en skygge af sig selv mod Exeter var vores topscorer Colby Bishop, der absolut intet fik ud af anstrengelserne. Ideen om at vi er bedre uden ham er lettere absurd, men det er også som er værd at kigge nærmere på. Da han var ude med en mindre skade tidligere på måneden vandt vi vores tre kampe uden ham sammenlagt 8-0 mod hhv. Northampton, Bolton og Shrewsbury. Så vi kan altså godt finde vej til nettet uden vores topscorer, og spørgsmålet er om vores offensiv er mere fleksibel og dermed sværere at dæmme op for uden ham? Dermed ikke sagt at Bishop ikke god nok til os, for det er han. Det er nærmere spørgsmålet om at kortene, fra kamp til kamp, skal blandes anderledes og oftere.
Et hurtigt liga-overblik
Bolton udnyttede vores nye pointtab ved at tage en sikker sejr på 2-0 hos Fleetwood. Til gengæld delte Peterborough og Barnsley i porten ved at spille 2-2. Derby var bagud 1-2 i Oxford, men fik vendt kampen og vandt 3-2. Vores næste modstander Stevenage kom ikke i kamp da deres hjemmebaneopgør mod Cambridge blev udsat på grund af vejret.
I bunden slog Wigan Carlisle med 2-0 mens Cheltenham og Reading spillede 2-2.
Kommentarer fra head coach John Mousinho
“It’s obviously frustrating and I felt that we wasted most of the first 45 minutes after starting well. But we lost control and didn’t do anything particularly well – you can’t just hope that things will get better after the break. We were the team in the ascendency from then on and had a few chances that on another day, we put in the back of the net. That performance was fine, but when you waste a half like we did, you leave yourself open to not winning. If we’d have beaten Fleetwood and got the result we deserved at Bristol Rovers, then you put it down to an off night, take the point and move on. The frustration builds because of the past two games, so now we have to address some of those issues. To get to 50 points at this stage of the season is a big achievement, but there’s a lot for us still to improve on. There’s only a couple of days for us to get ready to face Stevenage and we’ll try to put in a good performance on Monday.”
Et par ord fra Sean Raggett
“Frustration just about sums things up because we weren’t quite at it – especially in the first half. We came out after the break and were a bit better, but I would still expect to see more from us because we didn’t create loads. There were still enough chances for us to win the game, though, and we were the team in the ascendancy. We just need to be a bit braver and show some more quality on the ball to make sure that we improve on this. Things just didn’t quite go our way, but that happens sometimes and if you look back over the season, we’ve had late winners and moments go for us. So it’s disappointing, but we’ll take the point and the clean sheet, then move on to Stevenage on Monday. The boys are fully confident in this group and know this has just been a small blip for us. We’ve got what we need to be successful. There’s quality here and the strength in depth is better than it has been in the past, which is a big thing.”
League One, St. James Park, 29. december 2023
Exeter City – Portsmouth 0-0 (0-0)
Opstillingen (4-2-3-1): Norris; Rafferty, Raggett, Shaughnessy, Sparkes (Yengi ‘83); Robertson (Morrell ‘62), Pack (anfører); Whyte (Kamara ‘62), Devlin (Saydee ‘62), Lane; Bishop
På bænken: Schofield, Towler, Scully, Yengi, Morrell, Kamara og Saydee.
Advarsler: Raggett og Sparkes
Udvisning: Ingen
Tilskuere: 8.322, heraf 1.335 medrejsende Pompey supportere
Interview efter kampen med John Mousinho
Kampens Højdepunkter
