POMPEY 2 BLACKBURN 1

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Pompey Sound Podcasts 16 min 1 speaker 5 chapters transcribed

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What is the significance of the Pompey vs. Blackburn match result?

Duncan Barkes 0:00

Pompey 2, Blackburn 1. On a personal note, this report's a little bit later than normal, and that's because it's my birthday. And, of course, I haven't had a better birthday present than that result and performance since I got a second-hand racing bike when I was 14. Staying on a personal note just for a few seconds longer, one of the drawbacks of having a birthday close to Christmas...

How does the host feel about celebrating their birthday after the match?

Duncan Barkes 0:29

is that one or two cheapskate relatives give you what they call a combined Christmas and birthday present. And they try to imply that if you look at the value of the present, it is what the value of two separate presents, a Christmas present and a birthday present, would have been. But it never was. It was just one present and they had economised. Now, all I'm saying, the only reason I'm mentioning that is because I don't want that result to me, just for me, to be a combined Christmas and birthday present. I want a second present on or around Christmas Day. Well, it was a good result, wasn't it? And it was a good performance. The first 20 minutes, we looked like what John Massino has described as the good team that we're capable of being.

Duncan Barkes 1:25

Or is the word decent? Decent, I think, is the exact word he may have used. But he pointed out that when we're not on song, then we're not a decent side. And I think that is a very good analysis of the Pompey that we have at the moment. Capable of being a good side, a decent side. And giving a team like Blackburn, who let's always remember, were the third most successful away team in the entire championship. They were away specialists. And they had their captain back. who was a very capable player, if extremely annoying, but a very good footballer. So they had every right to expect that they would get something from us. And when they scored, there was almost a sense of, well, of course, we're going to beat this lot.

Duncan Barkes 2:16

That was why nobody went to celebrate with the goal scorer, did you notice? But anyway, they scored and our heads dropped a little. And I believe there was some booing at half-time. Shame on those so-called supporters. I'm coming round to thinking that if you don't know how to support Pompey, go and support somebody else. We don't want you. You're allowed to express concern, but booing the team is borderline sick. So don't do it. Find some other way. Please. It didn't have the desired effect. Don't pretend to yourself, don't kid yourself, the boo merchants, that your booing is what turned Pompey round in the second half. It isn't. What turned Pompey round is John Massino going to his little office at Fratton Park, and I've been, and it is a tiny office with no windows, to have a few moments by himself to consider what he was going to say to the players.

Duncan Barkes 3:21

And whatever it was he said, it worked. It worked big time because that second half performance, you know, crowned off by those two fantastic goals. I mean, copybook goals, match of the day goals. They really were, was really hopeful for us. And if we can keep it up, anything like that. When we go to Derby and indeed through towards January and the window and then the rest of the season, then of course we're going to be safe. There are no easy games in the Championship, but then we're good enough to make one or two teams or three or four teams look ordinary or even less than ordinary. And that's what we did to Blackburn, frankly. They weren't very good. They squandered so many passes. They kind of got stuck in, but not in a valuable way.

Duncan Barkes 4:16

They were physical. The referee had a great game, letting everything go if he could, when he could, and that benefited both sides in the end. 50-50 if you do that. And the game got some momentum, although there was an awful lot of bagatelle being played around the centre circle. But that's modern football with players being so fit and everybody pressing. So ping pong, ping pong. You know, an ownership of the ball is being traded on a one-pass basis. It's not pretty to watch, but it's committed, it's industrious, it's muscular, it's sweaty, and occasionally it's skillful, and it seems as though we don't mind, especially with a scoreline like that.