CHARLTON 1 POMPEY 3

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Pompey Sound Podcasts 19 min 5 chapters transcribed

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What were the key moments in the Charlton vs. Pompey match?

0:00

Charlton 1, Pompey 3.

How does spectatorship affect the experience of football fans?

0:01

I don't think we realise sometimes how exhausting football can be as a spectator of a spectator sport. I mean, game's just over. I've got myself a beer. I'm just taking stock and I hardly know where to start except Charlton 1, Pompey 3. That'll do. That'll do big time. You know... Two games we lost because the gods, quite frankly, decided that we would because the other team didn't beat us. And we played absolutely fine. We didn't beat ourselves, but our last two games, The gods decreed that we'd lose. That's all you can say. And they're out there, the gods. I don't know what they are or who they are. But in this evening's game, the gods decided that we would get our just deserves. Because 2-0 at half-time was absolutely about right, really.

1:10

A little bit of luck with Devlin's effort for his first goal of the two. The penalty was also a little bit lucky. We'd have been upset if it had been given against us, wouldn't we? Be honest, come on. But it was given to us for us. The ref probably got some stick at halftime from Charlton about it. And you would, again, if it had been us. John Messina would have said something as the officials came off at halftime. And it may have influenced the referee with a couple of other possible penalties that we could have had and maybe compared to the one that we got, should have had. But OK, you know, that's life without VAR. And on the whole, I think most of us are coming round to believing that life without VAR would just be that much more authentic.

2:03

But anyway, anyway, to the performance, we nearly went one behind after 30 seconds, less than 30 seconds. Less than 30 seconds they were through on goal.

What role did luck play in the match outcomes?

2:14

And their guy did almost everything right, except Schmidt had got down and spread himself. A dink would have done it, but instead he thought he would place it wide of where he thought Smith's extended, very long two legs were going to be. But Smith had got his body down and he blocked it superbly. He does that so well, doesn't he? He's a good shot blocker, as well as other things. Sometimes the high crosses, but we'll talk about that another time. He's a great shot blocker. And his general football is fantastic. There was a moment in the second half where we had a free kick just on our side of the halfway line and he took it. He was that far forward and he was that instrumental and constructive and playing in the game.

3:01

But no, they could have gone 1-0 up. Now, what would have happened then? Would the result have been Pompey 3, Charlton 1 or 2 then? Or would the game have changed completely? And would we have had the stuffing knocked out of us? And this is not a criticism of Pompey. This is not a failing of Pompey. This is human nature, which you've got to understand. You've got to get on top of. If we'd gone 1-0 down with less than a minute on the clock, it would have been a completely different performance. and a completely different result. There's no two ways about it, but it didn't go in. And we collected ourselves and we took the first half, just as we have done in our last two games. We're becoming a very good side in the first half, taking control of the game early on, going with the momentum that the crowd and the adrenaline of the moment provides the players with in the first 10 minutes.

3:59

Football is a different game in the first 10 minutes than from the remaining 80 minutes because of the adrenaline and the possibility and the freshness of the crowd and the unexpectedness of the moment and the excitement about how things might pan out an hour and a half later. It's a different game. And we've learned. We used to be pretty poor in the first half. The first 20 minutes, sometimes, we just weren't at the races. But the last few games... We've really started to get hold of the game by the scruff of the neck in the first 10 minutes and maintain it for the whole of the first half. So that's really good. We went in at half-time 2-0 and looking as though we might be able to sit on it. We'd have been happy to have sat on it.

4:53

As it was, Terry Devlin picked the ball up.