Another Sunday affair at the SoL saw the visitors make their 345 miles trip up from the south coast. Coming fresh off spanking the Swans, Pompey had belly crawled their way out of the relegation zone. With an injury list nearly as long as ours they had struggled since we beat 3-1 at their place last year. If they went home with a point I think they'd be pleased.
The weather was as wet as it was rotten. Having blunted the Blades last week we could really do with a convincing win to cement our improving form. Would we be walking in a winter Wearside wonderland? We'd have to wait and see.
Promising build-up play from an intercepted ball by Mayenda lead to Roberts shooting just off the mark. Not a bad start. Goals would surely come... aaaand they did. Well, one did. Mayenda slipped through into their half, their haphazard backline tried to play for offside but failed. Issy powered forward to make sure was in the right place and the right time again. The inform Frenchman beat his man and put his foot through it as if he was shooting from the half-way line - that's something he hasn't tried yet! One nil the lads. Hopefully there'd be more to come. I'm not a fan of the 'who are ya?' chant when it's punching down. Hashtag stayhumble n that.
The visitors pressed well for a short period, although this only seemed to highlight the gaping holes in their shoddy backline. Issy showed his again quality with a superb cross but Paddy arrived slightly early and although he showed he can even cut inside whilst in mid air he still managed to miss. Given his form running at players and tracking back, Paddy's shooting quality is often bizarrely poor. If he could improve that area of his game he'd probably triple in value. Similar to Pritch last season, he's a game changer.
Alese was proving a problematic power house. Running through there attacking players and leaving an Alese-shaped imprint in them. For me he's getting better every game.
Although we were out-doing them in terms of possession, they'd had just as many touches in our box as we had in theirs by the 25 minute mark. We'd barely been in their half for the last five minutes. Our passing accuracy was twice as good as theirs but they still looked a threat.
We blazed into their half again. Aouchiche cut inside and forced a world class save from the keeper. He's definitely due one. Eli was causing problems all over the shop. Roberts passed to Aouchiche who cut inside ala Clarke and failed to apply the right amount of power. Another save by their keeper. Eli was pulled down in the box but it was too soft for the ref.
Moments later Neil scythed through their midfield and provided a slick pass to Wilson. He got the ball in the back of the net again, but sadly the linesman rightly judged Issy's chin to be offside.
The players left for their half time medicinal Bovril with things going our way. We needed to kill it when we came back out though.
The players didn't really want to come back out and face the elements, but they did. A bright start to the half saw Cirkin greeted to the game with a push in the box. A soft one though. Surely Alese must have taken a knock in the first half, or maybe giving Dennis 45 was always the plan after he didn't feature at all against Sheffield United? A free header on goal to them reminded us that Pompey were still in it.
Some sloppy play from our midfield gave the visitors enough to get their hands on the wheel. That being said we still seemed to be getting through on goal every half a dozen passes. Roberts picked up the ball and had another pop but their giant keeper pounced on it with ease. We had begun to build again. Cirkin faked it passed their wide man and made it into the box. He passed into the 6-yard box but no one was there to meet it.
LO9 decided to give away fans a momento and booted the a shot into the away seating area. Very considerate.
More clever play from us saw Wilson through on goal but their centre-back tried to pull his shirt off his back. A straight red to Marlon Pack at the back and the midfielder playing centre half was sent off. We really needed to knock things up a notch. Yes we were a man up but with 20 mins to go, but Pompey now had nothing to lose.
A battle had begun to build between Adil and the Bristol loanee Atkinson. The new addition to the field hardly clearly been told to attempt to thwart the Frenchman. It was good to see him causing some problems but we could have done with a goal.
Some great play from us and Mayenda's shot was blocked from yards out. After some promising play we ended up taking three ineffectual corners in a row. That looping high ball to the back post we've played numerous times over the past few weeks needs to go back to the drawing board.
Aleksic on for Adil, who'd put in another grand performance. I hope he gets that goal soon. 10 minutes plus stoppage time to go. Come on Sunderland. Put it to bed. Hume tried his luck but the shot was met again by the 6ft5 Nicolas brick Schmidhouse. Its not even the final third we have issues with, it's final 8th. Too many missed opportunities.
Then something exciting finally happened. POWERCUT.
To be more accurate the leccy was tripped. We have an outside light a neighbour dropped a brick on, long story. Actually no it isn't, that's the whole story. Anyway, whenever anyone switches it on the whole house gets plunged into darkness. Great. I banged into everything in the house reaching the switch by the back door and then banged into everything making my way to the fuse box, then fallen my way back to find something to stand on.
By the time I'd made it back the game was done. Three points. The result we needed. Just not a hugely convincing performances in terms of our shooting but then again, they did have the sugar puff monster playing in goal for them. I do feel a bit bad the away fans travelled all that way just to see them lose 1-0. I wished they'd seen them lose 4-0. Heyho, something to build on.
Now, does anyone know any good electricians?
Keep the faith
GPD
