Portsmouth vs Pools

[Soup Ladle]

One good bit of news coming from the club is that defence coach Curtis Fleming has left to join QPR as assistant manager . I haven't seen as bad a Pools backline in my time supporting us so good riddance.

Pompey flattering to deceive as usual but will have far too much for a demoralised squad of mostly decent players but lacking guts, game knowledge and leadership. I saw 2/5 on a home win and thought about putting half of my Christmas salary on it but decided not to. We're in turmoil on and off the pitch.

Should be a 4-0 home win. But I wait to see what the defence do on Saturday in the absence of their grandmaster. I count us keeping the score below 3 a decent improvement.

 

[PoolieTom]

I'm sure Hignett will have learnt now that fucking about with the formation won't work. He'll go back to the correct 4-3-3, and we will hopefully have our first choice back 4 out for the first time in ages. If he goes with anything else we will get well beat.

Hopefully we see a similar reaction after the 5-0 defeat as we did after the 6-1 defeat to Stevenage.

Heart says 1-1
Head says 0-3

 

[Chief Rocka]

Cya Fleming, ex international defender at the helm of the leakiest back line in the league, good luck at QPR

We're gonna get paggered here like, as soon as the first goal goes in it'll only be a matter of how many Portsmouth can muster, much like Saturday was, thinking 4-0 and not a Pools shot on target.

How does he line them up then, can't see him playing 4-4-2, probably 451/433?

Carson
Donnelly Toto Bates Carroll
Allesandra Laurent Featherweight Hawkins Deverdics
Amond

 

[hellogregory]

I saw 2/5 on a home win and thought about putting half of my Christmas salary on it

Tempting

 

[PoolieTom]

How does he line them up then, can't see him playing 4-4-2, probably 451/433?

Carson
Donnelly Toto Bates Carroll
Allesandra Laurent Featherweight Hawkins Deverdics
Amond

Hopefully that is the team.

If he goes 3-5-2 again, the 9/1 about Pompey scoring 5 or more is very very tempting

 

[K-Win]

We're always short odds at home. The bookies have it in their heads that we're some kind of league 2 Barcelona, and no amount of comedy home defeats will shake that belief.

We may well win but I'd find a safer 2/5 shot if I were you Soup. If you make it unscathed to half time then the old doubts will set in, the crowd will get anxious and then it's anyone's game. However, if we do score early we may rack up a few.

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

I'm not looking forward to this at all ..... 4 or under will at least not make us a laughing stock .... this could be bad
...... and I'm the optimistic one !

 

[Sestonpoolie]

The players are shitt arses in front of 3000 home fans,god knows what they'll,be like in an intimidating crowd of 15000

 

[Bar Carousel]

We know it, the players know it, the manager knows it, the whole league knows it. We should win today if we are to be considered serious promotion contenders, capable of stringing some consistent form together.

Can the eleven on the pitch handle that pressure. Can 16 odd thousand fans stay behind the team and spur the boys onto victory. Or will the players wilt, miss a few chances, misplace a few passes. Will the home crowd start to jeer and heckle. Will this be Crawley at home or Notts County. Wycombe in the league or Wycombe in the cup. Will the lads be cheered or booed at full time.

Tune in at 4.45pm to find out.

And hats off to every single one of you Poolies travelling down for this one today.

 

[Chief Rocka]

This is nice of Pompey, (quoted as it's a big picture)

At least they're buying us dinner before fucking us...

 

[Bucket_]

I'm beginning to really hate this season.

 

[Vanni]

A free cup of tea and a mince pie, and an unexpected point thrown in for good measure. Who says the Christmas spirit is dead? Well done Pompey And a bigger well done to the travelling Poolies

 

[hellogregory]

Well done Poolies. Probably would have benefitted you long term if you'd took a 6-0 defeat and Hignett got the chop, but great point none the less and good for us 3 at the exclusive end.

 

[Chief Rocka]

Carson had the game of his life by the sounds of it.

Brave team selection and it's paid off, fantastic point, something to build on for Saturday.

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

I never expected that .....

 

[K-Win]

All too familiar for us I'm afraid. I hope none of you went big on the 2/5 odds.

Cook's 'control the ball at all costs' tactics are fine away but simply don't work at home. Generally our opponents at Fratton don't particularly want the ball that much anyway, so we're playing right into their hands.

Four points from five home games is relegation form, not something that will see us in the promotion places come May. We have four decent strikers, play two from the start and things may change. Can't see Cook doing it, so he will be gone at the end of the season unless we sneak up via the playoffs.

Oh and well done Pools. Good point after a torrid week.

 

[shoddycollins]

Where the fuck were our mince pies eh Pompey? Or apple pies or whatever you have in the summer.

Pompey owe us a mince pie. I expect you'll be bringing them up to Brunton Park in the New Year.

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

They also gave a present to Bradley , the young Sunderland fan whose very poorly .....nice gesture

 

[shoddycollins]

They also gave a present to Bradley , the young Sunderland fan whose very poorly .....nice gesture

That's nice, he from Hartlepool then? Or is it just because you can convey it back to the north-east for him?

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

Cos we are close I suppose .....obviously things like this break down any rivalry ....you're probably aware that Everton gave 200k for treatment , they are now my favorite 'other team ' .....unfortunately from what I'm reading it's not worked out for the little lad .... don't you just hate life sometimes ?

 

[shoddycollins]

Cos we are close I suppose .....obviously things like this break down any rivalry ....you're probably aware that Everton gave 200k for treatment , they are now my favorite 'other team ' .....unfortunately from what I'm reading it's not worked out for the little lad .... don't you just hate life sometimes ?

Yeah, I read there's a campaign to have his penalty before the game the other week named goal of the month.

 

[Bar Carousel]

We're destined for the Play-Off's!

 

[shoddycollins]

We're destined for the Play-Off's!

You gonna splash the cash in January?

 

[WAP]

Home form is worrying, we started off the season so well at home aswell but now can't score at all. I don't want Cook to go but he doesn't help himself with the team selections. Hartlepool come to town on the back of a thrashing at home and we don't even go 2 up front. Smith will score goals but he's abit of a donkey and wasted 3 or 4 chances. Roberts was non existent, Bennett not much better. Carl Baker and Danny Rose had very good games. Hartlepool offered absolutely nothing in the second half I'm not sure if they even touched the ball in our box?

 

[Bar Carousel]

You gonna splash the cash in January?

There is a little amount of the seasons budget left. We've already signed a prospect from non-league who will arrive in Jan.

It's becoming quite clear that it's tactics, not players that's holding us back. See WAP comments above.

 

[Bucket_]

Yup, it's tactics. That coupled with the manager's stubbornness and an unwillingness to take risks (unless it's 60+ mins in) is seriously stifling us at home, to the point its gotten to now - Teams just seem to know what to expect when they come to Fratton, I feel like we need to add some unpredictability in our lineup and approach to counter that. Away from home the system seems to work, but I really believe that FP is going to be the key to getting Top 3, this away form can't last forever.

Unless things change quickly I can only seeing us getting the playoffs again though; I was hoping Cook might learn his lessons, but he's had multiple opportunities to adapt and still hasn't really. He flatters to deceive a bit. The whole squad does collectively a lot of the time, although I do genuinely believe we have the quality to achieve Top 3 still. It's just not clicking for some reason.