City wake from their slumbers to edge through.

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6 Responses to City wake from their slumbers to edge through.

  1. Colin Phillips says:

    Thanks, Paul, as I wasn’t there last night an invaluable report.

    All being well I will be there for the Villa game and hope to see “our Ken” play hell with John Terry.

  2. BJA says:

    Paul -faultless report as ever and there is now a good evidence that NW, and no doubt support from KB who seems to be animated from time to time on the touchline, is able to change our approach by his substitutions. Certainly the removal of Pilks from his starting eleven at half time brought about an attack with more pace about it.
    That in turn allowed Tomlin ( who I’m not yet convinced about by the way) to play in his more accustomed role, and provide a few more opportunities for his attacking colleagues. Hopefully it will not be too long before such colleagues will be more in tune with his intentions and anticipate where he is likely to place the ball otherwise we will continue to give possession back to our opponents.
    I have upgraded my season ticket this year to Level 4, and now have a much better viewing position that gives a better perception of the depth of any match. Last night there were far too many occasions when our central defenders and goalkeeper were just lumping the ball upfield in the hope that Ward and Co would win possession. Sadly that didn’t happen very often. We really need to address that aspect of our game, and have a more constructive element to that part of our play.
    From the stats from the Pompey website, I see we had many more attempts on goal than they did, with eight on target. With a couple of bad misses, we could and should have won the game in normal time but a win is a win and many players had a good work-out, Jazz Richards particularly who was excellent both in defence and attack.

  3. Clive Rymon says:

    Hi Paul,it seemed like it would be a repeat of previous seasons last night as a side put together to see us through struggled against spirited opposition until our manager had a “word”at halftime,where are those heady days of F A cups and League cups of not so long ago,but we cleared the first hurdle now onward and upward.

    It did appear to me that Pilkington would rather be anywhere than here at the moment he certainly looks to have lost his edge,it would appear he needs a fresh challenge,as does O’keefe let’s hope that is achieved for them before the transfer window closes,just my oplnian of course.

    We now face a tough test on Saturday against one of the “big boys”Villa and aparrantly there is going to be a decent crowd so let’s hope for a game that will make people who have got out of habit of coming to the stadium think that we have turned the corner,and giving the City the support it deserves.

  4. The other Bob Wilson says:

    Thanks once again for your replies – Colin P, although this is primarily down to Terry, the average age of the Villa back four against Hull was thirty one and they had the thirty three year old Glenn Whelan in a defensive midfield role. Even without the injured Kadeem Harris, City have plenty of attacking pace and mobility these days and you’d think our best chance is to keep their defenders on the move as much as possible.
    BJA, I agree with you that it seemed odd to have the goalkeeper and central defenders playing it long and high when the Pompey central defenders were winning virtually every aerial battle with Ward, Pilkington/Tomlin – as I mentioned, we seem to be more willing to play to feet in the final third of the pitch this season, so I don’t get why we persist in launching the ball from the back.
    Clive R, I had one or two conversations on Tuesday night with people who are closer to the club than I am and so are better informed about things like number of season tickets sold and tickets sold for individual games. Starting with the latter, everything I’m hearing says that we’re in for a good crowd on Saturday which will top the 21,000 odd that watched our game with Villa last season. As for season tickets sold, I’ve been a bit concerned about the fact that we’ve had no indication from the club about how many have been sold and have been thinking that this means the figure is low. I won’t give away confidences, but I was told a number on Tuesday which, while not fantastic, did leave me pleasantly surprised.

  5. Russell says:

    Thanks Paul late reply still Devon /Cornwall lag time .

    A friend if mine went to the game and his description was simalir as yours :

    Halford was at fault , however he thinks he will deliver for us as do I,( I detest folk who develop a one eyed view, without giving the lad a chance, I find they are chaps who never kicked a ball in anger themselves and dont get the quite contribution factor .

    Manga looked like he wasn’t bothered in the first half and probaly was crestfallen to be picked ,better second half though,and was well protected by Richards .

    Ward worked hard , he may be another wing choice, think NW gas alluded as much.

    Kennedy in his view was very good deserves a run.

    Lang looks dangerous .

    Pilks has lost the plot, strange one this as he worked hard under Trollope.

    Morrison seems to be NW go to man ,as much as Halford, even so now from his own decision to tell NW he wanted to stay .

    Fir Saturday I would like to see a frontline of Ward , Kennedy ,Zohore , Tomplin at 10, Ralls / Gunnerson in the middle , then back four from Bennett ,Manga , Bruno Morrison, then the keeper ,eeek , now I’m lost for choice ,not inspired , and a worry, looking back on last year’s start without Marshall and the lack of a decent keeper until we got the excellent Mcgregor.

  6. The other Bob Wilson says:

    I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ward starting on the left today Russell with Hoilett on the rightand Tomlin operating as a number ten behind Zohore. I think Mendez-Laing has the potential to really frighten Championship defences (particularly one as old as Villa’s is) if he comes off the bench with, say, thirty minutes left – I reckon Kennedy did enough on Tuesday to merit a substitute’s place as well. As for at the back, although I’d go for Jazz Richards, I’d be very surprised if Peltier doesn’t start at right back.

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