John Massino

As John Messina has been underlining quite a lot over the last few days.

He has players who look as though they're... A perfect example, of course, is Murphy, who's going to be out for a couple of games.

Then it turns into the rest of the season.

So he's got to make, you know, real, real tight decisions about...

based on probably a lot of guesswork as well as everything else so it will be especially interesting to see what the starting lineup is when we get the team sheets for the Norwich game and just have a look at whether or not he's going to risk Shaughnessy which if he does that means that he is going for something from Norwich which will be a brave thing to do

Because it is, isn't it?

Whether he likes it or not, whether he says so or not, it's all about Oxford, isn't it?

What are Steve Bone's predictions for the Norwich game?

one at Norwich but I do think because we won't speak again before Monday I do think we're going to turn that around and get everything firing and we're going to beat Oxford quite convincingly and you can catch a full half hour of Steve on the Pompey Sound podcast if you go to your podcast provider and put in Pompey Sound that you'll find our most recent podcasts listed and you want the one that starts with the word Steve

Thank you very much.

and said that they didn't think it was fair that this manager might have an opportunity to wear out three of their players, making them more vulnerable to poor results as they head towards hopefully surviving in the championship from their point of view this season.

What's John Massino got to say?

For clarity, I'm not questioning Michael's integrity, he's an excellent manager and great person, but the league have a lot to answer for on this one.

left back and striker but I think they both came off after 60-65 minutes and the third Oxford United player was one who I think was substituted on at around about the same time so none of them played the full game but they played a good hour it doesn't look as though it was a particularly competitive game and I think that they were avoiding the 50-50s if you know what I mean but nevertheless they weren't at home enjoying a quiet evening and then getting an early night

is probably the point that Oxford United were trying to make.

But it's too late.

It's happened.

And Oxford United have got to live with it, whatever the actual consequences of O'Neill picking a team on merit.

That's what everybody is agreed upon.

He picked the best team he could for what was needed on behalf of Northern Ireland players.