1) I like Holden. He’s what we need at the moment - no nonsense and back to basics. No he’s not Pep Guardiola but then again Pep would be pointless with our limited squad. I’m comfortable with him in charge. BUT (and see point 2).
2) Stop the fecking squad rotation. We aren’t Man City. These are professional players who should be able to play every game. We know the best team and it wasn’t what rolled out against Oxford. Let’s stick to that front three and midfield 3. We aren’t going up this year but our best line up should get enough points to steer clear of the wrong end of the table.
I don’t think Cowley is very popular at Portsmouth but in fairness he never looks for excuses in his post match interviews . Always gives an honest assessment.
He's had a lot of practice.
True. Opening answer. Not good enough today , scratch of head , repeat.
Much better against a side that lacked confidence and reminded me of us lately. If we can find a way to be more clinical and have cover for our back positions we can certainly go on a run.
Played well, everyone doing what was required. Thought CBT might have taken a tackle form the keeper. Not sure who was the poorest, Pompey or their floodlights.
These are professional players who should be able to play every game. We know the best team and it wasn’t what rolled out against Oxford. Let’s stick to that front three and midfield 3. We aren’t going up this year but our best line up should get enough points to steer clear of the wrong end of the table.
I get your point, and I agree to a certain extent. However there’s a lot of games in a league one season and we’ve seen consistently players like CBT and Sessegnon unable to play when there is a heavy workload - and not because of rotation, because they pick up niggles.
Fraser is someone who tends to fade in the latter stages of games (since he had Covid), so again it’s a risk to play Saturday, Tuesdays - because the moment he comes up against someone with more legs then it could cause us an issue.
I think our main issue is, which just don’t have the required quality in depth so when we do need to rotate (like all teams do) we just end up being woefully short.
Interesting Stockley seemed to be in a slight delay mode to celebrate the OG (Dobbo's strike) with him and the fans.
I also saw him clapping and getting vocal when we did some good defensive work near the touchline when he was warming up.
So I think if we’re going down the thinking about it to much route, I reckon he was just frustrated that the ball didn’t fall to him to get a goal.
I think he’s looked kinda alright in his cameos in recent games, but he is third choice striker (if Aneke is fit) - and will be fourth choice if we get someone decent in this window.
Keeping miles leaburn on the pitch is the most important thing we can do (apart from dobbo but that's a given coz the man is a machine) Leaburn is the only player at the club who can play the lone striker role. We need to make an understudy or player of similar attributes, the priority in the window. Get the forward line right and everything else suddenly starts functioning a lot better
The players we have, we should play 4-3-3 consistently. you could see that Portsmouth struggled to deal with our width all game. Bin 3-5-2 immediately as he played against Oxford as the squad doesn't suit it. it doesn't matter if we become predictable with our formation, let other teams worry about us, rather than change our shape to match the opposition. Onto the game today, I was critical of Fraser in the first 10 mins, he gave the ball away and lost posession 4 times, but, boy after that he put in a stellar performance. Albie continues to do the sublime to the rediculous, but it was a better performance from him today. As pointed out by the CL studio, it is more of a mental, footballing brain issue, rather than a lack of talent. Dobbo continues to get MoM performances from me me. He continues to be the glue that holds the team together, and has deservedly gained the captains armband. Defence looked pretty solid today, Inness deciding to lump it out for a throw in, rather than try to play it on the ground on several ocassions. Ness played well, Sessingnon was back and forth, and Clare had a decent game apart from leaving his marker for their equaliser. Up front we looked really dangerous, Miles played a lovely weighted pass for Rak-Sakyi to score, and both wide players terrorised the Pompey back line. Minor criticism is that Blackett-Taylor and Rak-Sayi should have made more of our break away attempts. For once in Div 1 I thought the ref was excellent. And a final mention for Stockley, he looked assured when he came on, defended well from corners and played some cute balls in our break away attempts. Our central spine of Maynard Brewer, Ness, Morgan and Leaburn, MADE IN CHARLTON.
Lovely win like this and I'm all in on Charlton bets, top half, play offs, promotion. Then we get beaten at home to someone like MK Dons - boring and I'm trying to think positive that playing in the fourth division will see us win more games then remember that this old chestnut never holds true.
I understand the reasoning for the changes in mid week but hoping now we can keep a settled side with no more Chin, Henry or funky rotations/systems.
If we can bring in a proper left back then Sess can go to his rightful RB slot....until Egbo is fit & then they can fight it out.
I'm in 2 minds over JRS. I would prefer to keep him but he has been out if form recently & his miss against Peterborough cost us a win. But he scored today & is joint top scorer so knows where the goal is.
Today showed why CBT should start. Chuks injuries I feel is now mental rather than physical. I reckon he convinced himself something was going to go during warm up & now it's all in his head.
We need at least 2 new strikers this month. Happy with Innis & Ness at the back & the midfield is not too bad either. A bit of strengthening would help but I feel we do have the basics of a side that have enough to stay up.
Hats off to holden. That was a much needed performance and it was refreshing to see him not religiously stick to a set up that clearly does not work for us. Let's hope he can maintain this as there's some tough games coming up.
I understand the reasoning for the changes in mid week but hoping now we can keep a settled side with no more Chin, Henry or funky rotations/systems.
If we can bring in a proper left back then Sess can go to his rightful RB slot....until Egbo is fit & then they can fight it out.
I'm in 2 minds over JRS. I would prefer to keep him but he has been out if form recently & his miss against Peterborough cost us a win. But he scored today & is joint top scorer so knows where the goal is.
Today showed why CBT should start. Chuks injuries I feel is now mental rather than physical. I reckon he convinced himself something was going to go during warm up & now it's all in his head.
We need at least 2 new strikers this month. Happy with Innis & Ness at the back & the midfield is not too bad either. A bit of strengthening would help but I feel we do have the basics of a side that have enough to stay up.
Sess could be the missing link in midfield, so two full backs for me Golfie
Comments
1) I like Holden. He’s what we need at the moment - no nonsense and back to basics. No he’s not Pep Guardiola but then again Pep would be pointless with our limited squad. I’m comfortable with him in charge. BUT (and see point 2).
2) Stop the fecking squad rotation. We aren’t Man City. These are professional players who should be able to play every game. We know the best team and it wasn’t what rolled out against Oxford. Let’s stick to that front three and midfield 3. We aren’t going up this year but our best line up should get enough points to steer clear of the wrong end of the table.
Not sure who was the poorest, Pompey or their floodlights.
Fraser is someone who tends to fade in the latter stages of games (since he had Covid), so again it’s a risk to play Saturday, Tuesdays - because the moment he comes up against someone with more legs then it could cause us an issue.
I think our main issue is, which just don’t have the required quality in depth so when we do need to rotate (like all teams do) we just end up being woefully short.
So I think if we’re going down the thinking about it to much route, I reckon he was just frustrated that the ball didn’t fall to him to get a goal.
I think he’s looked kinda alright in his cameos in recent games, but he is third choice striker (if Aneke is fit) - and will be fourth choice if we get someone decent in this window.
Quite astonishing that we have won in 10 of our last 11 visits to Fratton Park.
Onto the game today, I was critical of Fraser in the first 10 mins, he gave the ball away and lost posession 4 times, but, boy after that he put in a stellar performance. Albie continues to do the sublime to the rediculous, but it was a better performance from him today. As pointed out by the CL studio, it is more of a mental, footballing brain issue, rather than a lack of talent. Dobbo continues to get MoM performances from me me. He continues to be the glue that holds the team together, and has deservedly gained the captains armband.
Defence looked pretty solid today, Inness deciding to lump it out for a throw in, rather than try to play it on the ground on several ocassions. Ness played well, Sessingnon was back and forth, and Clare had a decent game apart from leaving his marker for their equaliser.
Up front we looked really dangerous, Miles played a lovely weighted pass for Rak-Sakyi to score, and both wide players terrorised the Pompey back line. Minor criticism is that Blackett-Taylor and Rak-Sayi should have made more of our break away attempts.
For once in Div 1 I thought the ref was excellent. And a final mention for Stockley, he looked assured when he came on, defended well from corners and played some cute balls in our break away attempts.
Our central spine of Maynard Brewer, Ness, Morgan and Leaburn, MADE IN CHARLTON.
Lovely win like this and I'm all in on Charlton bets, top half, play offs, promotion. Then we get beaten at home to someone like MK Dons - boring and I'm trying to think positive that playing in the fourth division will see us win more games then remember that this old chestnut never holds true.
Aaaarrrgg!!
Time to christen a new "HMS piss the league"
If we can bring in a proper left back then Sess can go to his rightful RB slot....until Egbo is fit & then they can fight it out.
I'm in 2 minds over JRS. I would prefer to keep him but he has been out if form recently & his miss against Peterborough cost us a win. But he scored today & is joint top scorer so knows where the goal is.
Today showed why CBT should start. Chuks injuries I feel is now mental rather than physical. I reckon he convinced himself something was going to go during warm up & now it's all in his head.
We need at least 2 new strikers this month. Happy with Innis & Ness at the back & the midfield is not too bad either. A bit of strengthening would help but I feel we do have the basics of a side that have enough to stay up.