Duncan Barkes

And it didn't happen at St Mary's.

Well, it happened today at Fratton Park.

Because it was a great game of football if you weren't...

you know, furiously wishing one side or another to win, which completely overrides your powers of analysis of a game of football.

If you are so impassioned that your side should win, you hardly notice the quality of the football.

But the quality of the football was kind of interesting because we were here, there and everywhere.

We certainly shaded the first half and

That was to do with footballing ability, not just the fact that we had the Fratton Park crowd, of course, giving it their all, as they do, as we do.

And we were kicking towards the Fratton Park end.

Sorry, the Fratton end.

So the first half belonged to us.

But we went in nil-nil.

Now, there's going to be a bit of soul-searching and a bit of grief about the goal that Southampton scored.

Because they didn't deserve it.

What's the old phrase?

It went against the run of play.

They didn't work a good goal.

They were gifted a good goal by some defensive errors.

And various commentators have identified a Pompey player as having got it wrong, got the offside trap wrong.

I don't know about you, I don't care.