Chapter 1: What recent performance changes are impacting Portsmouth's season?
It's been a frustrating period for us and the result just relieves a bit of the pressure so we have to take belief from it. We want to make Fratton Park a difficult place for sides to visit, just like it was on so many occasions last season. Our home form was what ultimately kept us up and so we've been looking to get back to that as quickly as possible.
I feel like Saturday could have been the start, and we didn't allow any negativity to set in. We just focused on the job at hand. We started pretty well and of course it was disappointing to concede, but we'd been playing some good stuff, and needed to remain confident in what the gaffer wanted us to do. In the second half, we were able to get the press right, which is a big part of our game.
We're well aware what we are capable of. As soon as Murph gets the ball, you know where it's going, and I've made the run about 20 times in the past two games. All for that one moment. I've got to get myself in those positions, wherever I'm playing, and I know that he's going to put it on a plate for me.
I'd be lying if I said I felt class after my first 90 for quite a while, but I'm getting there and will be fine after a few days in the ice bath. The hamstring feels fine and the main reason why we opted for the surgery was to reduce the risk. I just want to keep going now. There's something about Lange when he's on fire.
Chapter 2: How are players adapting to the pressure of home games?
And almost always when he's playing, he's on fire. He's everywhere. He chases everything. He does the press, I presume, perfectly. It's a bit of a trade secret as to exactly what type of a press Pompey wants to play. John Massino wants them to play. But they know when they're getting it right. And evidently when they're getting it right, it's very effective. And Lange presses as well as anybody.
Segacic is pretty good. But I'd say Lang is our man when it comes to chasing the ball down. And then when he's got the ball... He's very, very aggressive. He's direct. And we like that, don't we?
Chapter 3: What role does confidence play in team performance?
But most of all, he's got a tremendous instinct as a goal scorer. He gets into the right place. And the more Murph finds him, the more Murph is going to grow in confidence and believe in his ability to, as Lang put it, just tear up for him. Tear up for him. Quick postscript to...
John Massino has revealed that Hayden Matthews came off with only a minute of normal time remaining, I believe, because he still can't quite do the 90 minutes. And that is a slight concern, but one that they are addressing and which we can hope will be eradicated in the not-too-distant future. John Massino has been pressing some buttons for Hayden Matthews.
I thought Hayden was outstanding, overall he was very good, very good on the ball, and off the ball. For us one of the big frustrations with him this year is that we saw his promise last season, when he came from Australia, and played straight away. It has taken him a bit of time to get back up to that.
But I did think he was much more solid against Swansea, and he went again against Blackburn, with his best performance of the season. Hayden had that really bad injury against QPR in February, and played on at the time, I'm not really sure why he hasn't gone back to those levels, it's an interesting one.
It has taken him a bit of time to get his match fitness and match sharpness going and being as comfortable as he needs to be. We saw glimpses of that against Stoke then he went backwards against Birmingham and didn't quite look himself athletically, regardless of the fact we wanted him to be a bit more dominant and to win his headers.
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Chapter 4: How does tactical pressing influence the game strategy?
However, he's just put it back together very, very well in the last week or so. He's pushing Hayden Matthews, isn't he, John Massino? You can tell. And of course it was his main position, centre-half, so he speaks with additional authority besides all the coaching badges that you can get. If you've actually stood in those boots as the number five, then you speak with that much greater authority.
And I'm sure Hayden Matthews is very good at listening too. But what Massino is saying there is that he was a better player just after he arrived. Maybe that was the enthusiasm, the adrenaline, you know, playing in a new continent, in a new city with one or two Aussie mates knocking around, which must have been exhilarating as well. And maybe he just had the wind in his tail.
But he did look very, very competent when he arrived. Didn't he get thrown in 48 hours after the plane touched down? I seem to remember because we were centre halves were a bit thin on the ground at the time and he did so well. But what Massino is saying now is he hasn't quite got back.
to that standard and Massino believes he can get back to that standard and one of the ways he's going to help Matthews get back to that standard is by saying publicly that he's not quite there yet and he needs to pull his socks up just another half an inch and then we've got ourselves a very solid young up and coming centre half.
Guy Whittingham has been speaking to the BBC about the chances of using Blackburn as a springboard.
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Chapter 5: What challenges is Hayden Matthews facing this season?
Blackburn were the third best away team this season behind Coventry, and it's a great result and a needed one. It hasn't defined the season in terms of relegation or survival, but it certainly should add some real confidence to Pompey for the way they played against a good team, gone behind and came back to win it.
It's one of those days when you feel that there could have quite possibly been a shift in Pompey's season, especially when they really needed this result. The run of results they've had, you sort of thought it would happen after Millwall, it hasn't quite taken off. You now hope that it's gonna take off, I'm not saying they'll go and win every game from now but certainly with the home form.
That also links to the away performance at Swansea. It was a decent away performance and whatever happened happened, but games coming up Derby are next, then QPR and Charlton. No games are easy, but they aren't facing top of the table. You wouldn't expect anyone else to get dragged into it. It's 28 points when you're going up to your Watfords and your Birmingham's.
It would have to be a spectacular collapse for one of those teams to drop into that bottom 5, 6 or 7. It seems to be that scrap have West Brom kicked on. Derby are below them but are only 7 points clear. That's why with Derby coming up and Charlton coming up as well as facing 6 teams at home that are in the bottom half currently you'll likely get results against those.
You've got to love Guy Whittingham and Andrew Moon together.
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Chapter 6: How are upcoming matches expected to affect team morale?
Moon is a terrific commentator. I'm surprised he hasn't been catapulted forward to even greater heights than BBC Solent. And Guy Whittingham is just the perfect foil, the perfect... The Americans call them colour commentator. I think we call them co-commentators. Sometimes they can be very bland. And Guy doesn't exactly, you know, he doesn't do a Jonathan Pearce about it.
But you can sense what a deep Pompey fan he is, how deep it runs. The fact that he wants Pompey to do well and he wants Pompey to win, you can just sense it. He feels as though he ought to predict, project some kind of neutrality into what he does. And he does that by, funnily enough, in that article, in that piece, he refers to Pompey as they. Well, it's we.
And we know, Guy, that in your heart of hearts, it's we. But you're a professional and you try to maintain some kind of objectivity. So you refer to Pompey as they. But your main point, of course, is absolutely spot on.
Chapter 7: What insights does Guy Whittingham provide about recent games?
We've got some, on paper, easier games coming up. Derby, QPR and Charlton, technically. And of course, we all know that there are no easy games in the championship and so on and so forth. Anybody can beat anybody on the day and it's a level playing field and blah, blah, blah.
But it is still marginally more pleasant and potentially more prosperous to be facing teams who are down towards that part of the league table, which at the moment we unfortunately inhabit, but hopefully not for long. Let's hope that Whittingham's crossing of fingers and reading of the runes comes to something and we get something maybe plenty from Derby, QPR and Charlton.
And as he quite rightly says from the rest of our games this season. Rovers led 1-0 at Fratton Park thanks to Yukio Hashi's superb individual effort, but failed to capitalise on their advantage. The game turned on 60 minutes when Pompey created a hat-trick of chances. Ainslie Pairs twice denied Connor Chaplin either side of a Yuri Ribeiro clearance off the line.
Minutes later, Callum Lang equalised. Mourinho felt the chances they had just before was the turn point in the game. I sat in the office at half time thinking about the message to the players. We didn't show anything tactical or technical, Blackburn are a really good side and have some players who can hurt you.
Chapter 8: How can Portsmouth improve their game for future matches?
It was a decent enough performance in the first half, particularly off the back of the disappointment on Tuesday night, but that was probably all it was it was decent. I felt there was more to come we just lacked a little intensity and aggression in the final action of anything we did defensively and on the ball as well.
We probably didn't come out in the second half and do that for 10 to 15 minutes, but once we had that triple chance on 60 minutes, the whole game changed off the back of that. The win cuts the gap between the two teams to three points. Portsmouth had only won two of 11 games beforehand and so this was a huge comeback win.
With three losses, including the last time we were here at Fratton Park losing the game, it meant this was very, very important, especially having dropped into the bottom two this morning," he continued. more importantly, was the nature of the game and how it panned out.
The fact we got back into it, the fact we have given people something to cheer about and believe going home, that's the biggest thing for me. When we actually knuckle down and do some of the right things and attack with intent, I think we can be a good side. When we don't do those things, we're not particularly good. That was the pleasing thing for me.
I have seen that a lot this year, but maybe just without the final sprinkles on top and being ruthless in front of goal. We put all of that together in a half an hour spell towards the back end of the second half. Of course, we weren't to know at the time that it was going to be a game changing moment because it was very exciting. Three
snapshots one after another we had men in the box therefore all the shots were good strong and on target and Blackburn defended desperately and must have been mighty relieved to have got the third and final effort away and they could sort of jog towards the other half of the pitch
going few and we I think the fans and possibly the players as well in fact yeah definitely the players must have felt oh I hope that's not our chance come and gone but actually what happened was it lifted us in the stands and it lifted the players on the pitch was the land goal down to those three close escapes for Blackburn it's in the mix isn't it
But the other thing that's worth taking from that piece in the Lancashire Telegraph is John Massino's phrase about the sprinkles on top. It's a beautiful, beautiful way of describing how, you know, you get the sort of... I'm going to mix my meal metaphors here.
But, you know, you've got your meat and potatoes underneath, which is where you do your defending and your covering and your marking and your tackling. And then you work the ball forward and the sprinkles. I know sprinkles are for pudding and sweets and everything, but the sprinkles on top, the goals, maybe, maybe they're starting to come. Fingers crossed.
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