Portsmouth v Carlisle

[Alan Partridge]

Unreal sending off, the referee was clearly looking to make the game about himself and he done just that - cost us three points.

Result was never in doubt.

 

[Bar Carousel]

Well I enjoyed that yesterday, albeit that it had that familiar feeling of frustration in the end.

Must admit I was surprised at the sending off, but the lad had pulled Roberts shirt in front of the ref, so he gave the ref the option of a second yellow and he bought it. One of those decisions that's either right or wrong depending on what side of the fence you're on.

Hard to judge Carlisle on that performance given it became a training exercise of defence v attack for the best part of an hour. Whilst 11 v 11 we were definitely on top (but 1-0 down).

23 attempts on goal show we threw the kitchen sink at them. Carlisle defended well and stuck to a plan and we ultimately couldn't break them down.

Credit to the Cumbrians who turned up. Had a chat with a couple in the pub after and seemed like a good bunch.

 

[hellogregory]

Left the ground fairly upbeat, the game as a whole was very like last season. The main difference for me was we didn't stop creating chances even with 10 minutes to go and Carlisle down to 10 men who had every man inside the 18 yard box.

Baker looked class and if not for the Carlisle keeper could have had 3 or 4 worldies, Danny Rose had a steady game and hit the post late on, even Doyle had 2 shots from distance which both tested the keeper. Lalkovic looked unplayable at times and impressed me.

Carlisle fans, was that Ibehre sat in the front of the away end yesterday?

Yes him and his kid.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

what i am surprised at is with the new rules in about players not getting involved with referee's why were the 3 Portsmouth players not booked when the red card was given.

all 3 of them went right to the ref asking for a red card then 1 or 2 of them clapped when the card was given.

 

[shoddycollins]

This result and performance is more pleasing in retrospect following the Port Vale game.

I read a fair bit of stuff, both from Pompey fans and from neutrals/the media that criticised our negative football and described us as workmanlike, dogged, cloggers, lower-mid table fodder. Hoof it clear, get everyone behind the ball. Some appreciated it but there was still a question of how much of it was just because we were down to 10 men and away from home and how much was just because we are workmanlike cloggers.

Having now shown the other side of our game against Vale, I think we can be pretty satisfied that rather than being just a workmanlilke team who can grind out unlikely results, we may be a good footballing team who can go the other way if we're put in a difficult situation.

I like Curle's no-nonsense attitude to making tactical switches sometimes. A lot of managers, when having to defend a point away from home against the bookie's favourites and with only ten men, would switch to a run-of-the-mill defensive formation, just with one less striker. Something like 4-4-1 or 5-3-1, and probably they'd lose. But not Keith Curle, as far as he is concerned, you play to maintain your position or you take the game to the opposition, there is no middle ground, I think we did similar the other season against Burton following an early sending off and almost held out for the win, and on the flipside, I'm sure there was a game last season we ended playing 2-3-5 or some other ChampMan formation.