What has happened to the match reports? Has Woopert´s gone on holiday or just had enough? How many points have PFC managed to accululate since the New Year. 7? In the meantime we have seen Rotherham who were midtable surge ahead of us and out of sight, while Plymouth have stormed past us to secure the final play-off place. What is happening at FP? That squad should be doing better than it is.
Wooperts goes to home matches. 2 points in 2018. Injury, after injury after injury. We're basically playing either kids or a development team. Add that to no leaders on the pitch and you get the answer.
We were excellent first half, Ides, but really should have scored more than one goal before the half time whistle. We had a very young side today - the average age of the squad must have been around 23, and six of the seven subs were products of our academy. Second half was a different 'kettle of fish', and the Gills took their chances well. We had 17 shots with 4 on target, whilst the Gills only had 5 shots with 4 on target. Just read that striker Oli Hawkins is now out injured for at least two weeks. Our players are literally dropping like flies
I have been reading comments on The News website and they seems to concur what you said about a lack of leaders on the pitch, amongst other things of course. What is really needed in the summer, is a statment of intent, both on the pitch and off it in terms of stadium redevelopment.
Felt truly sorry for the youngsters yesterday - we were excellent first half and as Woops said should have been 2 or even 3 up....but the side is brittle on confidence and when they equalised you could see them retreat into safety playing a bit. That said you can't but credit the Gills in the 2nd half - they must have had some serious bollocking at HT because they were right at it from the off 2nd half. Two of their goals were very good finishes the 2nd we could and should have prevented. You could look at a great defensive tackle to deny Lowe when 1 on 1 and Ronan's peach of a free kick and it might have ben a different story. I think what was poor was our support - having watched the noise in the Arsenal Cup game on MAJR's thread that was real Pompey - the one that got us a reputation as the most loyal and best fans in the land, yesterday the exodus was embarrassing and I have no idea what that must feel like for those players...they tried hard yesterday and yes the 2nd half wasn't good enough from a result perspective but they were trying to turn it round. PM may be right....they are young lads - some teenagers or 20 years old...not sure I'd have had the cojones to play in front of 18K at that age...so FP needs to really get behind them....a number of them are some of our own as the chant goes...lets stick with them..it's what a true fan does.
For me we've performed above my expectations this season. All I was looking for this season was survival and we are currently achieving that with flying colours and are safely mid-table. There are still 30 points up for grabs until the end of the season and we are 11 points clear of the relegation places (19 above 24th placed Bury) and five points off the play-off zone (19 points below 3rd placed Wigan) so we could end up going either way or just staying where we are. So long as we dont get dragged down into the bottom three it will be a good base to build from for next season.
Have we set our sights too high? If you were told at the end of May last year that Pompey will finish around 12th in League One next season, I think most of us would have probably said some-thing on the lines of 'fair enough' build the squad for the following season and see if we get a sniff of the playoffs. The fact that the side has threatened, at times, to become a fixture of the top six, is in my opinion an over achievement. In the unlikely event that we did somehow sneak into 6th place and actually win promotion, I fear we would be punching above our weight in the Championship, just two seasons after being a League Two outfit. I feel the owners need to provide a budget for the summer that will allow the necessary improvements to be made to the squad such that the playoffs should be a serious target next season. Don't run before you can walk!
Let me quote myself from this page: https://www.not606.com/threads/majrs-all-purpose-pompey-thoughts-thread.258591/page-3 ...Now the question is, having surpassed my previous expectations, what now should be the aims of Portsmouth Football club? As in League Two we should have a minimal expectation for each season aimed at what would be an acceptable low mark for considering the campaign a success, and I would argue my League Two Five Year Plan should be equally applicable to League One. The minimum we should expect is survival for the first season, safe mid-table for the second, top ten/playoff contenders for the next two season after that and finally automatic promotion/title challenge the fifth season. If we achieve more than that in any of those season then it is a bonus but again this provides for a gradual progression up the league and keeps expectations grounded. The proviso I would have is that if Micheal Eisner decides to invest significantly in the playing staff we could cut that down to a Three Year Plan by replacing survival for safe mid-table as the aim for the first season, then expect to be promoted within the next two seasons, but I am not convinced that he wants to run the club in that manner and I think he's more likely to invest in facilities, company branding and imaging, and youth player development, in which case I would stick to the Five Year Plan.
Astute work Majr & Dev also highlights the reality....with it very likely Brum and Sunderland are dropping into Lg1 we have additional big fish - that may help us a bit - but their budgets will be bigger than ours.
