Match Day Thread versus Portsmouth

Enjoy your cup final

 

Often makes me laugh(cry) when there are 60,000 inside old trafford/the etihad etc and I think that is twice what the RN has. Sadly the Field Gun (as you and I knew it) bit the dust about 12 years ago-we honestly couldn't afford the drain on manpower and sad to say that the job I was in at the time meant that I had to agree with getting rid of it. They now do a scaled downed version which is only a few weeks training and is held at HMS Collingwood. Not the same, and no where near the same level of interest from the troops, bit those that take part are still as passionate about it as ever.

 

What about the intelligence test? You might think the following is a joke but I assure you it's not. When I joined the Andrew at 16 I had to do a medical before hand and a test of the brain cells. Part of the test was a section of pictures with questions attached. The questions were of the calibre to severely test even a Cambridge candidate such as "which one is the screw driver". I understand the Army test was "spell your name James Brown". Those that passed that one became Sandhurst Cadets and the ones who didn't understand the question were the squadies.

 

Oh and BTW I joined in 1980 and had £84 a fortnight. After haircut and other deductions I reckon I had £20 a week to waste on women and wine!

 

Erm we are top of the league pompeylampras not you so whose cup final is it? Last season it was 2 wins and one loss with a draw chucked in out of the four for us. You know you need it more than we do. The bookies make you favourites so go put your house on it.

 

I've said this before somewhere on here. My wages when I joined in 1965 were £130 per year, Yes that is right it was per year not per month. I couldn't afford women and wine. I had to settle for an underwear catelogue and a packet of wine gums,

 

Lyndhurst I think it was George Best who said that he'd spent 90% of his money on wine, women and song but the rest he'd wasted.

 

Looking at the website, looks like less that 100 tickets left plus blocks 15-17 (which I suspect are being kept back for anyone who rocks up on the day) so expect a 12000+ crowd. Looking out of my window in PL3 it's dull and dark, and with the prospect of some hefty showers early afternoon should be a perfect day for football. Looking forward to a hard earned point, or possibly 3.

 

Big drops of rain coming down here now although not in numbers to wet the pavement yet.

I read no tickets are for sale at the ground although they may be available online.

 

No, there definitely are tickets available at the ground today but not at the turnstiles. i.e. need to be purchased at the box office first. Not the greatest press release by Argyle as I am sure there will be others apart from your good self who interpreted the headline as meaning no POTD, and hence won't turn out.

 

1-0 in your cup final.

It's your cup final because you're just here to watch Portsmouth. What are your attendances normally?

 

Bore off PompeyLapras - more people turn up for this fixture because in theory it should have been between two decent footballing sides- it is a pity the Pompey players spent far too much time throwing themselves to the ground, giving away stupid free kicks and moaning. If they focused on playing the game instead they might realise they have a decent team!
Anyway, on with the match report.

A fairly entertaining (if not particularly pretty) and slightly controversial game in front of a bumper crowd saw the points shared, which was probably a fair result but it could very easily have gone either and nearly did. The lashing rain more or less cleared up by kick off and most of the match was played in unseasonably warm sunshine. Pompey started considerably better than Argyle and carried an obvious threat going forward especially down the flanks where their players seemed to have more room and a lot my pace than Argyle. Despite their domination with the football, as stated above they put on a slightly Wycombe-esq display which only served to wind up the ref and the home fans.Argyle gradually worked their way into the match without really threatening the goal but always looked dangerous from set pieces. Carey hit a good shot from one of the unnecessary free kicks but the wall did its job and it was deflected for a corner and it was no surprise when Argyle struck first via a Songo header from yet another corner. He celebrated in front of the Home fans but the ref saw fit to book him. Argyle had a bit of a purple patch and had one cleared off the line but Pompey were always in the game and went in at half time level following a good goal by them. Their player celebrated and gesticulated in front of the Argyle fans, but the ref for whatever reason didnt bother to get his cards out. Surely it couldn't possibly be because the same player have been booked earlier for a dive.......

Second half started with Pompey very much on the front foot and they created a lot of chances, but a combination of good goalkeeping, decent defending and abject finishing prevented them from taking the lead until much later on. Much of the second half looked like both teams were settling for a point but Pompey popped up with what many thought was the winner and this was the slightly controversial moment. Luke touched(at least I think he did) a fierce shot onto the underside off the bar, the ball bounced down and Luke gathered up the rebound. The ref said no goal but the linesman saw fit to give it even though he was miles behind play. Queue Pompey celebrations including a couple of morons who decided to delay things by pratting around on the pitch. Hope they get a long banning order. By now DAs substitutions meant we didn't have a recognized striker on the pitch but that didn't stop Smith popping up with a cracking equaliser in the dying minutes. 2-2, job done and honours even.

MOTM went to Bradley but I am going for Carey, he was a bit of a one man band the second half when too many Argyle players were below par. Still top by 3 points, move on to the next one.

 

Or because they wanted to get a glimpse at Hampshire's finest! It's okay, you can admit it, I won't tell anyone.

And if you played anything like you did in the play-offs, the moaning would have been justified.

 

Just becoming a little pathetic now PL.....just go and wind up your next opponents....lucky for you we had injured players out.

 

You people need to calm down and not be so sensitive.

 

A draw just about right although Pompey certainly exposed a lack of pace in our back four. They were particularly effective down their left, our right.

I suspect the replacement of Jervis with Smith was as much as anything to put Carey's work rate on the right to protect Miller.

I was a long way away but my impression based on McCormick's movement was that Pompey's second goal was indeed in. On the other hand, I had a decent view of the Pompey penalty claim in the first half. Ref was absolutely right to give the yellow for a dive.

Leaving Carey out to avoid him being MoM every week, I'd give it to Fox. On the downside, Spencer hardly got a sniff and Song'o looked every inch a CB playing in midfield. Dire, Ijaha to start next time please Mr Adams.

 

Oh and on the subject of the Pompey fans, a pathetic pitch invasion for a scrappy goal in League 2. Talk about our Cup Final...

Also continual mindless abuse of McCormick in relation to a human tragedy the facts of which they know or care very little.

 

Mrs Jooooooooolllllssssss .. helloooooo