Duncan Barkes

Probably was about fair.

The commentators that I was listening to, the Redoubtable Moon and Whittingham, aren't they good?

they were saying that Blackburn played the first half as though they were the away side.

And that's what it looked like.

They played five at the back.

That meant that our wingers had very little space to operate in.

I mean, Blackburn said that they set up, you know, with three at the back, you know, but that is cobblers.

They had five at the back.

They had a man wide on the left and on the right.

to handle our wingers.

It's a compliment to our wingers.

It's a compliment to how much respect the opposition, and on this occasion, Blackburn, have for Pompey, that they played the way that they did in the first half.

Some commentators said they came out for the second half looking more meaningful, looking like they wanted it.

And, you know, there are fans who will say, well, I obviously got the hairdryer treatment at halftime.

No, no, no, no, no.

Their manager, O'Neill, is much shrewder than that.

And they had a game plan.

And for about five minutes into the second half, for the 10 minutes after that, they'd rather got hold of the game, didn't they?

It was a game when the sides took it in turns to have good passages.

They started well in the first half.