Pompey v Crawley

K-Win

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Only 1 goal between the teams in the table so should be a close one. I'll take a draw here. We've had two wins on the bounce and grabbing that third straight win has proved impossible in the past.

Interesting to see if Cook will be as good as his word and start with two strikers this time. Expecting fans' whipping boy Michael Smith to feature somewhere after bagging a hat-trick against Yeovil in that meaningless mid-week game.
 

Casey

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We have a few injuries in awkward positions (ooerr matron) so I would expect pretty much the same team as we put out against County. Beeney gave a good account of himself in the game (spits on floor) Tuesday so he may get the nod in goal as Mersin has been dropping the ball and I'm hoping Jordan Roberts may be fit for the bench.

Ever the optimist I'm going and I reckon this could be a sneaky win for the away team. 1-2

Casey
 

K-Win

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Casey, you should have gone for a 0-1 away win as you always score exactly 1 goal. All depends whether we can get more than that I reckon.

I'm expecting us to knock the ball from side-to-side in the Crawley half ad nauseum until the ref blows the whistle and puts everyone out of their misery.
 

antn1.b

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Smith chaplin up front as a pair has to be tried soon surely. I don't go along with all the grief Smith gets. he's a proven player and was coming good towards the end of last season. if we can get him In his pre injury swindon form he'd be up there with the best In the league.
 

K-Win

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I agree about the Smith / Chaplin combo. The best part of Smith's game is the flick-on and Chaplin's always looking to get behind the defence. It's too obvious so expect Cookie to go with something different.
 

Hermann

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Agree with the comments about Smith - I think the problem is that he's too isolated when the ball is played up to him; Main suffered the same problems against Colchester.

I watched the Yeovil highlights and, for his second goal, Smith had the ball at his feet with his back to goal and not one player is looking to support him - there's nobody within 20 yards. He did fantastically to score from there, but it was crying out for a midfielder running into the box.

 

Casey

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If you knock the ball about in our half all game then the ball will never leave because we knock the ball about in our half too.

I made up a result more in hope than expectation. We have to score more than one goal eventually. Don't we?

Casey
 

antn1.b

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can't believe a teams come to fratton and tried to play out from the back. been shit at it so far but they've tried
 

K-Win

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Well, we stuck with one up front and we've run riot. Goes to show what I know. The three behind the striker have played a much higher line and caused plenty of problems.

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antn1.b

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they've tried to play the ball and clearly not quick enough or skillfull enough to do so.
also we seem to have upped the tempo a fair bit.
 

antn1.b

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love how teams come to fratton to run the clock every week yet the moment we're 3 up the refs got nothing more important in his life than hurrying play
 

antn1.b

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very naive setup from crawley. teams park the bus for a reason.
 

WAP

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First half was men against boys, Crawley trying to play tiki taka football on their 18 yard line was surprising but good to see as they were awful at it. Crawley keeper must have put the ball out of play 10 times. Second half was more even but never felt like we'd concede.
 

K-Win

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We've broken the mythical 3 wins-in-a-row barrier! The team looked well up for it today. Loved Lalkovic - he's like Kyle Bennett, but with an end product.

There was still time for a classic Smith one-on-one miss. I like the guy but he does make it hard for himself sometimes.

As for Crawley - well they must be better than we saw today. Those two early goals finished it as a contest. They're clearly a passing team though so fair play for that.
 

Bar Carousel

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I know it sounds patronising but credit to Crawley for coming and having a go. It allowed an enjoyable and entertaining spectacle for the home fans at least. Credit too to their fans for joining in with the banter and pretending to score a goal at 3-0.

In the end though it was very naive and has probably guaranteed that all sides will come here with a defensive set up for the remainder of the season, which has proven so successful for a lot of sides.

Now't wrong with that though. It's what sport is all about and I'd do the same. Up to Cook to find a way to beat it.
 

Casey

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Next time please use Vaseline. It bloody hurts being rogered without.

I had a nice journey down, a couple of Speckled Hens in the rifle club shame I didn't see Crawley out up a bit of a fight.

Pompey played up we pissed about.

Casey
 

K-Win

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I'm at the Rifle Club right now Casey. Paul Cook was in earlier too. Good luck for the season.

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I'm not too downbeat.
Portsmouth were quite superb in the first 45, as good as I've seen a team at this level tbh.
Having said that, we were so naive.

You won't get away with passing across your own box when the opposition quickly clock that you don't want to pass back to your keeper, because he can't kick the ball ffs.
I won't panic at this result, onwards and upwards.

The Pompey support was very impressive indeed.
 

Hermann

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can't believe a teams come to fratton and tried to play out from the back. been shit at it so far but they've tried

It definitely played into our hands in the first half, especially for the second goal. I thought Crawley looked quite good after the break, although without really troubling Forde.
 

Don Tonberry

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I can only echo what the others have said about Crawley's naivety. If we can repeat this result against the ultimate gamesmanship masters that are Wycombe Wanderers next week then that really would be a turning point.
 

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