Portsmouth v Blackpool Official Matchday Thread 20.02.21

Sullay's free kicks have improved, much quicker, and with Garbutt to take as well, makes us less predictable.

Our problem is still up front, but with Gary and CJ to come back, the future is looking good. Defensively, fine at this level
 
Jerry Yates - Could never understand the dissenters. Works his socks off. Tricky feet. Scores goals. Some people just wanting people to fail... give your heads a wobble. When we are back at Bloomers all the hand full of doomsters that dominate this AVFTT board will be drowned out by 14K true pool fans... who stayed away when it counted BUT came back positive when they were needed. Critchley is all but a year in. BELIEVE!!!!!!
 
hertfordseasider said:
That's a great 3 points, we were the better team first 15 minutes and last 25 minutes, but we reduced them to absolutely nothing apart from the great goal line block from Husband. I thought the back 4 were excellent, Kaikai MOM, Yates never gives up and I am glad we have him. I thought Elliot and Mitchell made the difference with their attacking creative football. They have to be in with a shout of starting on Tuesday. We don't need 2 defensive midfielders, so not sure how he will choose.
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You are spot on about not needing 2 defensive midfielders, I hope the penny’s dropped with Critchley.
 
My first and only comment on this thread.
Not pretty to watch, but just about the perfect away performance.
Would really like to see more of Mitchell on the left side of midfield.
 
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Brilliant tactics from Critchley today!

Simms was walking a tightrope with a card-happy ref, so took him off at half time and played Kaikai behind Yates.
Having 5 midfielders really helped us keep the ball second half, and our passing was much crisper.

We did the exact same vs Pompey in the home game and it worked a treat again today.

Brilliant win 👍🏻
 
Well coming into the game today we were facing 3 very difficult games on paper (which could go a long way to decide if we can threaten the top 6) and it’s started with 3 away points. With players to come back soon, keeps it very interesting 👍👍👍👍👍 bring on Donny and Charlton.
 
Memphisboy said:
Oh don’t be so precious you big girls blouse. Football is entertainment and everyone has a different view. My post was a gag and for the record I’m not a massive fan of Yates or Critchley and apologies if that’s not allowed nowadays. Good goal though I’ll admit that 👍
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You’re a knob, end of pal, and I love that Jerry keeps hammering that home.
 
Goforgoal said:
You are spot on about not needing 2 defensive midfielders, I hope the penny’s dropped with Critchley.
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Whilst I can understand this totally, I think I do slightly disagree. I think having them two in there gives the freedom for others to play and attack and think it was a big part of Portsmouth not really offering much from midfield themselves. Suppose its horses for courses with this point though and not necessarily a right or wrong way.
 
HetzkeBlaster said:
That’s an away win at both Peterborough and Portsmouth, games traditionally we get nowt from, with players like CJ and Ekpeteta out. Not a pretty game, but who cares. 😁 Dare to believe.....
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Don’t we usually do well at Portsmouth and Peterborough?
 
Yes its uninspiring, and to be honest for most of that match we were hopeless in an attacking sense. However, we are as good defensively as we are bad offensively, and it shouldn't be ignored. Aside from the clearance by Husband, we didn't give Portsmouth - another free scoring side - a sniff all game. Not a sniff. It's really very impressive how we're defending right now in most games. It isn't the kind of football that we were promised, but we're currently getting results by being stubbornly effective while missing several key players.

Not going to say much more than that, except Critchley made the right subs today imo. Leaving Simms on would've been a disaster and bringing on Virtue to shore things up further when in front was the right thing to do.
 
Good team performance and great goal from Yates against 3 defenders and the keeper. Well deserved win. Yates is strong on the ball and has fast feet like DJ and GTF
 
ThorntonPool said:
Brilliant tactics from Critchley today!

Simms was walking a tightrope with a card-happy ref, so took him off at half time and played Kaikai behind Yates.
Having 5 midfielders really helped us keep the ball second half, and our passing was much crisper.

We did the exact same vs Pompey in the home game and it worked a treat again today.

Brilliant win 👍🏻
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Spot on re the Simms substitution. I think he could have walked at some stage otherwise against that bunch of divers. I'll still say it would have been worth putting Sullay a bit nearer to Jerry in the second half and unless he had an injury I wouldn't have brought him off. Pompey were not good when players ran at them as it showed in the end. It's great to see the squad being used, Mitchell found his feet after a few minutes and looked really classy, Embleton did well, the defensive shape is really working, lot s of good things happening and with match winning players to return 👍
 
BBC stats says it all, shows on target Pompey nil, Pool 4

Yet they are one of the league's top scorers? This league is wide open
 
wasnt sure about the embleton change cos i thought Kaikai was causing Portsmouth a few problems, some of balls through we re just waiting for a proper response. but all well that ends well or somethig like that.

if there is a negative some of our forward breaks down a bit too quickly, and i think we were a bit predictable going forward. bt there were times when the interchange of play around the box is really good to watch, it just needs that final spark.
 
Cant fault that at all today. Absolutely rock solid against a team that were the top scorers in the League before kick off. Yates was unlucky early on, and Husband was in the right place when it mattered to clear off the line. Kaikai was everywhere first half and Yates ran his socks off, Gabriel did very well for most of the game, so did Husband. Ballard is a unit and he hardly ever puts a foot wrong. Hardly noticed Marv was missing did we. Almost to a man they did all the little simple stuff really well. Great away performance.

The three games this week, its massive not to lose ground on the three teams we are playing. One down today and three points gained. Onto Doncaster on Tuesday. Remember the fuck up at their place when we were two up. Big opportunity now to put that right.

On top of that, PNE stuffed and I won a hundred quid on a fixed odds bet. What's not to like. UTMP 👍
 
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It wasn't scintillating stuff most the game but to look at another way beating a playoff side with some key players still missing is pretty good.

A very solid performance with some bit of flair, mainly at the end.
 
Brilliant win. Delighted for Yates as he worked his socks off again and it was a great goal.

We keep doing what is asked of us. We are contenders.
 
CAGU said:
Don’t we usually do well at Portsmouth and Peterborough?
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Yeah you might be right, we may well have done recently. I’ve only got bad memories of long trips especially across to Peterborough, and remembering those long journeys home after defeats 😔.

But hey, 3 pts today, UTMP
 
Right, I'll own up. I couldn't see a goal coming. Yates chasing stuff too deep, no decent supply, ball being worked backwards too much and no creativity.
It is true that all of that happened. It is also true that as Pompey took more risks going forward, we capitalised. It was a good solo goal; we did keep it tight at the back and we are lacking some key players.
 
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