Chapter 1: What were the emotional reactions to the Pompey vs Southampton match?
Pompey won, Southampton won. The final whistle went about 90 seconds ago. So one is still feeling a little bit emotional because these things are emotional. Of course they're emotional. This game is especially emotional and we won it one all. We've talked about it before on Pompey Sound. There's no such thing as a one all draw. You either win a one all draw or you lose a one all draw.
And they lost a one all draw. because they had the lead and we came and got them. And so we won. So we feel better than they do. Obviously, let's hope there's no trouble on the way home for those fans from up the road, because that would not benefit our club, which is our priority. But putting that to one side, it was a good game.
If you were a neutral watching that, I hope that's put an elastoplast on the wound, really, of the game at St Mary's, which was just poor in so many ways. And a lot of journalists took the opportunity to say that sometimes these derbies are very disappointing because you're hoping for an explosion of footballing ability and passion... And it didn't happen at St Mary's.
Well, it happened today at Fratton Park. Because it was a great game of football if you weren't... you know, furiously wishing one side or another to win, which completely overrides your powers of analysis of a game of football. If you are so impassioned that your side should win, you hardly notice the quality of the football.
But the quality of the football was kind of interesting because we were here, there and everywhere. We certainly shaded the first half and That was to do with footballing ability, not just the fact that we had the Fratton Park crowd, of course, giving it their all, as they do, as we do. And we were kicking towards the Fratton Park end. Sorry, the Fratton end. So the first half belonged to us.
But we went in nil-nil. Now, there's going to be a bit of soul-searching and a bit of grief about the goal that Southampton scored. Because they didn't deserve it. What's the old phrase? It went against the run of play. They didn't work a good goal. They were gifted a good goal by some defensive errors.
And various commentators have identified a Pompey player as having got it wrong, got the offside trap wrong. I don't know about you, I don't care. I don't care. It was unfortunate. But the fact that we were able to rescue a point and a lot of dignity out of the game means that it happened. They scored.
If we'd had our preferred centre-back partnership of Shaughnessy and Poole at the back, would that goal have gone in? Would they have done what they did? No. Almost certainly. But then you don't know. I doubt it. We were playing with a makeshift back four. In the middle, anyway. And that's not easy. Southampton played a different game of football to us.
They played like a team who thought they were still in the Premier League. where they did very badly.
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Chapter 2: How did the game at Fratton Park differ from the previous match at St Mary's?
And they played with a certain multimillionaire elan, which will never go down at Fratton Park, even if we end up being multimillion. The idea of playing with that kind of, you know, like toff, like elitism, which they had. They would stand off us. There was a moment in the second half when Marlon Pack, who came on, isn't Marlon Pack, Marlon Pack.
And he found himself with his back to goal about halfway inside the half that Pompey were defending. And the ball was running a little bit loose. And in the championship, normally, three opponents would be up his, I'm going to say, backside. But they weren't. He looked around him and there was nobody chasing him down.
He had a chance to go and get the ball, turn around, look up and decide what to do with it. Because that's the sort of thing that happens in the Premier League. It doesn't happen that much in the Championship. So they gifted us that. And you know what? Considering most of them think that they should be in the Premier League, Those Southampton players weren't very impressive.
They weren't very good. Their defence was wobbly. We bossed their midfield easily. Their attacking force was stylish, but ineffective. Because we had Connor Ogilvie, I mean, just to name one name. And so we were the better side.
Throughout the first half, the second half, for some reason, and no one will ever know why, and John Messina will wonder why, but doesn't know why, we started the second half a bit lackadaisical, good word. Or at least they came out and they had an idea. They obviously hatched something in the dressing room at half time, some way of playing.
And it got them sort of slightly towards the front foot. And then the goal happened. It had been nip and tuck, back and forth for the first 20 minutes of the second half. And then they found themselves pumping a ball forward. And the Pompey back line tried to play the offside trap and it didn't work. And their bloke, I believe he's half Brazilian, half Luxembourg.
Isn't the world a wonderful place nowadays? He tucked it away pretty well actually. because it was that modern finish. He knew that the goalkeeper was going to spread his legs, and so he pushed it through between his legs. So, you know, professional stuff. Power to them. He ran away cupping his ears at the Pompey crowd. I've never... I've always hated that. I'm not saying I didn't like it.
I hate it. I hate it. I first saw a Charlton player do it about 30 years ago at Fratton Park. He scored at the Fratton end and the first thing he did, he didn't turn to his colleagues and say, yeah, we got a goal or congratulate himself even. He went straight up to the Fratton and cupped his ears. And I think that's an absolute insult, a disgrace. It should be a yellow card.
The cupping of the ears by an away player scoring a goal should be a yellow card. There used to be a thing called ungentlemanly behaviour. And then I think it morphed into unsportsman... No, unsporting behaviour, because you don't do men, you know, anymore. So, you know, linesmen, they're assistant referees. That's fair enough.
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Chapter 3: What were the key moments leading to Southampton's goal?
Were they mad? You let a guy like that go? Look at what he did for us today. And the last time he came on, he was everywhere. He won everything. He won every 50-50 duel. He won every aerial battle. He was everywhere. He was professional. He was...
rock solid can you imagine a Pompey side with Marlon Pack and we talked about this before and Adams side by side in front of our back four it won't matter who the back four is the back four could be your auntie and that bloke round the corner who used to play for Gosport and we would not concede a goal because in front of that back four is Adams and Pack
And these are two monstrously professional destroyers. They are destroyers. They're good on the ball, as in one of them scored for us. He put his head in where nobody else could quite get there in time. It was a ruck. It was a ruck in the six-yard box. Their goalkeeper, luckily, unfortunately, had a flaky day. He was flaky when that corner came in.
It bobbled and bibbled and Adams got there first. Oh, and did he enjoy it? Imagine what it's like. You've been let go by your club. You've been picked up by Pompey. He's probably living in a hotel. He's just finding his feet. He's happy that he's got a contract that lasts him until the end of next season. And so are we.
you score and you score a goal that brings brings the score level against your new team's deadly rival and you do that you know you can play as well as you like but nothing quite underlines your contribution to a game like scoring a goal like scoring a meaningful goal If it's 3-0 and you score the fourth, ah, that's great, you know, that's something.
If you're 2-0 down and with two minutes to go you score a, you know, consolation goal, that's something. But if you score, as he did, the goal that 20,000 men, women and children craved, craved, then of course you run the length of the pitch. Of course you run the length of the pitch down to the front end and congratulate them back. Because they were cheering him.
I don't think they knew that he'd got the goal. I think most of the front end thought that somebody had got the goal and it meant more to Adams than anybody else. Well, it did mean more to Adams than anybody else because he scored it. But what they saw was a Pompey player who, instead of going to the nearest corner flag to celebrate the goal, he went to them.
He went to them and said, hey, it's me and you lot against the world from now until the end of time. So we go home happy as Larry. They go home hang dog. Wondering what might have been. It wasn't. We move out of the bottom three.
OK, not by any great shakes, but looking at the table as it stands now, there are five or six teams that we are going to have to get above in order to have a comfortable end to the season. And when you look at recent results, the last seven or eight games that we played, we're on our way. We are. Annoyingly so. Norwich starting to pick up. Oxford get the odd result. Freakish though it may be.
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