En kraftpræstation
Efter en række knebne og sene nederlag på udebane var det et anderledes skarpt og vedholdende Pompey-mandskab, der på det nærmeste sikrede en ny billet til The Championship ved at vinde med 5-3 hos Norwich. Med de tre points avancerede vi en enkelt plads i tabellen, hvor vi overhalede Oxford United og nu ligger på 18. pladsen. Vigtigst af alt var dog, at vi øgede afstanden ned til stregen til seks points, og sandsynligvis nu blot skal bruge et enkelt point eller to mere for definitivt at sikre redningen.
To ændringer var der i startopstillingen denne gang, hvor Jordan Williams fik chancen i stedet for den småskadede Zak Swanson, der dog kom på banen efter pausen, lige som Adil Aouchiche var med fra første fløjt på bekostning af Christian Saydee.
Den officielle kamprapport
https://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/news/2025/april/18/match-report–norwich-v-pompey/
The Championship, Carrow Road, 18. april 2025
Norwich City – Portsmouth 3-5 (1-3)
15. minut: 0-1 Colby Bishop
21. minut: 1-1 Joshua Sargent
39. minut: 1-2 Matt Ritchie
45. minut: 1-3 Colby Bishop (straffespark)
51. minut: 1-4 Colby Bishop
64. minut: 2-4 Jack Stacey
71. minut: 2-5 Regan Poole
90. minut: 3-5 Emiliano Marcondes
Opstillingen (4-2-3-1): Schmid; Williams, Poole, Atkinson (Swanson ’85), Ogilvie; Potts, Hayden (Dozzell ’55); Ritchie (anfører) (Pack ’85), Aouchiche (Devlin ’85), Murphy; Bishop (Yengi ’75)
På bænken: Archer, Bramall, Blair, Saydee, Swanson, Dozzell, Pack, Devlin og Yengi
Advarsler: Ritchie, Hayden og Dozzell
Udvisning: Ingen
Tilskuere: 26.838, heraf 1.889 medrejsende Pompey supportere
Eftertanken
Vi har før set os starte udekampe som lyn og torden, hvorefter at vi senest i løbet af anden halvleg har taget foden af speederen, og følgelig er blevet straffet for dette. Det var anderledes mod Norwich, og det var bestemt ikke fordi at hjemmeholdet gemte sig, men træfsikkerheden betød denne gang, at vi fik scoret på vores chancer, og for hvert mål der gik ind steg spillernes tro på tingene. Selv efter 4-1 målet søgte vi den femte scoring, og gav aldrig Norwich ro. Overlod aldrig initiativet til dem. Dermed blev vi tilsvarende belønnet for den offensive tilgang til kampen. På minussiden står, at det blev på bekostning af defensiven, der heller ikke i denne kamp var overbevisende. Specielt skuffende var det at vi igen lukkede et mål ind til sidst, hvor koncentrationen svigtede da stadionuret rundede de 90 minutter. Det må ikke ske, heller ikke når man fører med tre mål, og viser at vi desværre mangler noget mental styrke til sidst i kampene. Det skal selvfølgelig ikke overskygge en generelt flot kamp og et fantastisk og vel nok afgørende resultat. Der er bare en rød tråd omkring disse sene scoringer imod, og noget som der må og skal arbejdes med inden næste sæson løber af stablen i august. Nu er det op til os på mandag definitivt at sørge for, at det igen bliver i The Championship.
Kommentarer fra head coach John Mousinho
“It hasn’t quite sunk in yet and it was a really stressful 90 minutes for me – I still didn’t feel secure when we were 5-2 up. But I am delighted with both the result and the performance – now we have to immediately refocus and be ready to go again on Monday. We’ve spoken about trying to put everything together and we want the lads to realise that we do deserve to be in the Championship. It’s just about having a bit more belief because sometimes we go away from home and wait for something to happen. We scored five goals and could have probably had a couple more, while we were facing the division’s top scorers. My message to the boys is that we can’t get carried away and think the job is done – it’s far from that. We have to be ruthless and keep it up.”
Et par ord fra Colby Bishop
“You go to bed the night before and dream about scoring a hat-trick. You’ve got to soak it all in because that doesn’t happen often. It’s my first one for Pompey – but hopefully not the last. It was just a great day and I’m delighted for the fans. They do some serious miles to follow us around the country and have had their fair share of disappointment, so they deserve it. People miss penalties and that’s unfortunately just part of life, but I always back myself to put away the next one. If I could get that kind of service every week it would be amazing because I love those crosses into the box. That’s 10 goals, which is great, but I don’t want to stop there. We’ve still got a few games, so let’s see what I can do.”
“We’ve been waiting for that for a long time and it’s been frustrating because we know how good we can be. To finally show that we can go away and beat good teams is something that we’re absolutely delighted about. We just played with a bit more freedom. There are some talented boys in this side and when we get it right, there aren’t too many who can handle them. So we need to take that confidence into every game because some of the football that we played was excellent.”
Matt Ritchies tanker efter kampen
“It’s another step in the right direction for us and a really good performance – there’s a lot we can take from that. We went into this one with an intent to win and when we have the mindset and are on the front foot, then we are able to impose ourselves. We jumped in the press at key times when Norwich wanted to build through the lines with control. That’s something we’ve faced a lot this season. You could see that we were composed in possession and were able to put them under real pressure with positive actions. I’m always pleased to be able to contribute to the team, although my focus has been more about keeping us structured and letting Josh Murphy on the other side be the threat. But I’m pleased to be among the goals and it was a really good move from us, so I was happy to get on the end of it. Now we have something to build on ahead of another big game on Monday and hopefully we can perform in the same manner.”
Interview efter kampen med John Mousinho
Interview med hattrick helten Colby Bishop
Kampens Højdepunkter