Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Steve Bone is in the wings, but we want him centre stage. Steve, good day. And what's highest on your fine mind?
Well, we're between reflections on the Southampton game, aren't we, last Sunday? And looking ahead to two, in a way, even bigger games than that. Because if you take away the derby element of last weekend, as the games go by now, with our situation near the bottom three. You're not in the bottom three, luckily. You know, the crunch games get bigger and bigger, don't they?
Chapter 2: What reflections do the hosts share about the recent Southampton game?
Get more crunchy, if you like. And actually, I was thinking after the Southampton game, I don't know if everybody felt like this, but because of all the narrative to that game, you kind of forgot that that was an important championship game because of our situation, didn't you, for a while? It was almost as though that was separate to the rest of the league campaign. It mattered.
and it mattered whether we won, drew or lost, but it didn't seem to matter as much in the context of the relegation situation and the table. Does that make sense?
It does, and I thought that John Massino looked a little bit more relaxed than normal because it wasn't a normal three-pointer. There was something else about it. You're quite right.
Yeah, it was almost like a cup, not quite like a cup tie, but that sort of feel where you can sort of park the... the whole league situation and the campaign and the worries just to concentrate on that game. And I enjoyed it. I mean, the main thing in the end was that we didn't lose because when you go 1-0 down at home to your rivals like that, you don't want it to finish like that.
That would have ruined everybody's week, if not their season. So to get back as we did, equalise, enjoyed the goal, enjoyed the celebrations, and I thought we were probably the most likely to win it after that.
that if it had gone on another 10 minutes we might have nicked it so yeah an enjoyable occasion really and it makes you hope that we can have another one next season against them actually there will be Pompey fans that not that it looks like we're going to stay up and they're going to go down I don't think that's going to happen I don't think they're going to go down
I don't think we are either, by the way, but it doesn't look like they're going anywhere this season, so I think there's every likelihood that it will take place again next season. It's a shame it's not on a Saturday afternoon, or you can have those sort of arguments about it, but it's still a good occasion. Whatever day and time you put it on, it's going to be a good occasion.
It's going to be intense, as it was last Sunday.
Penny's just dropped with me that when he scored that goal, the equaliser, he ran down your way, didn't he? Ran up to you almost. Did you know it was him who'd scored? Did you know it was him who'd scored? No, I didn't.
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Chapter 3: How do the hosts assess the importance of upcoming matches for the team?
Or is West Brom just a brand new chapter in Pompey's season?
That's interesting. I think we'll find out on Saturday really. You'd like to think that players and fans could bottle some of that intensity from Sunday and keep on using it. I heard... Someone say, and I can't remember now who it was, that if the atmosphere was like that at every home game, we'd probably win a lot more than we lose over the rest of the season. The fact is, it's not going to be.
You can't manufacture that sort of atmosphere in a game that doesn't mean as much. But certainly, because it's still fresh in the mind, I think you can hope for some of that to be carried forward into the West Brom game. West Brom is such a six-pointer, isn't it, to use that cliche, that I think you need to use some of that.
West Brom, you know, like Southampton, I mean, I thought they were pretty quiet, but they had good numbers down there. West Brom, I think they were going to bring a couple of thousand. They do tend to make a bit of a noise. They've got a very good away following. They've had some big days out down here.
here in the past so Pompey fans will need to be on it as well as the players on Saturday but yeah as the games go by you know the derby and everything around it gets forgotten doesn't it as other games sort of take centre stage but we certainly showed some of the sort of fighting spirit in that game you know the
I mean at one stage it was literally fighting spirit wasn't it by the north touchline when Swanson and the other fella had a few handbags and everybody else joined in all good fun but you need that spirit to be there whoever we're playing never mind if it's just Southampton we need that to be there we've been playing Ipswich and Hull and Sheffield United and everybody else yeah I understand we're on a charge for that melee or fracar or whatever you want to call it
Yes, I think both sides are, aren't they? Failing to control your players and probably a bit of punishment coming for the... Was it two? Were there two separate pitch invasions? There was certainly one, wasn't there? There was the chap who had all the time... He had more space on the front part than some of our forward players would have liked.
He took up a lot of space himself, the lad.
He took up a lot of space.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the recent derby match on team morale?
Devlin. I mean, the whole defence, you know, when you consider that we ended up, I think, with four full-backs in defence, didn't we? Full-backs playing as full-backs and full-backs in the middle as well. I thought they all did really well. Ogilvy, you know he's not going to let you down in a situation like that. But Boett did well as well. Devlin rose to the occasion as you'd have expected.
Like the look of Ali, that was my first proper look at him in a home game. I think he's got something to offer us. Likes to get a cross in, doesn't he? Reminds me of Murphy in a little way in that he... When he gets the ball he's thinking immediately, right, what's my best chance of getting a cross in?
Do I cut in and play it in from there or do I try to beat the man on the outside and whip it in? So he's a good addition. And I thought Bishop actually, you know, people have different opinions about Bishop. People are looking at his goal record and saying he's being paid to score goals and he's not doing it. I do think he's playing well at the moment.
I think he offers us a lot of unsung work he's getting through. He's doing a lot of running. He's making it uncomfortable for defenders. He's creating a bit of space for some of those attackers to run into. And he's probably worth the armband at the moment, I think, in what he's doing. When he was first made captain, I thought, it's a funny choice as captain.
I'd generally rather have a central midfielder or a defender as captain. I think most people would see that. But actually, I think he's probably... To have retained the captaincy for as long as he has, I think John Massino must see...
certain qualities in him and I do think he's delivering of course he needs goals we're all desperate for him to score goals even if it's just one every three games or something like that if he could start doing that brilliant but I do think he's earning his place inside at the moment and I do think just on that if we do buy another striker before the transfer window closes next Monday I think we need to be careful about what
assuming that we need to swap the new man in and Bishop out because I do think you'd lose something from the way we play if you took Bishop out of that starting 11 and we've seen it actually a few times this season when he's not started we don't look quite the same force I don't think so that's one to ponder
Absolutely. He holds the ball up well, of course. He wins so many headers when Schmidt picks him out. And Schmidt has got such a good eye for a 60-yard pass to Bishop. But Bishop also, he presses right across the front line, doesn't he?
He does. He does, actually. And where you haven't got Lang doing that at the moment, hopefully we're not going to lose Lang to Preston. Hopefully he'll be back in our team soon. Last season we had Ritchie doing that. Bishop is actually, I think he's taken on a bit more of the pressing duties than perhaps he had last season in doing that.
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Chapter 5: How do the hosts evaluate the performance of key players in the derby?
And it is for almost, as it was last year, almost every team in the Championship is either looking to see if they can get into the playoffs or they're looking over their shoulder thinking, could we get sucked into the bottom three? I mean, you look at the table as it stands, as we speak now, Pompey are just outside the relegation zone on 30%. Six points up from us is Swansea, who are 16th.
You go another six points up from them and you're into the top ten. You're up to Preston and Stoke around 9th and 10th. So it's still very tight, it's very condensed. But if we can just keep churning out the home wins that we have been getting, maybe the odd away point here and there, then we can stay on the right side of that line. But the chances are we're not going to know.
We're going to go into the final month of the season. not being safe by then, I would think, along with a lot of other sides. And there'll still be nerves to be shredded after that point for us and quite a few others as well. We wouldn't want it to be dull anyway, would we? It wants to be a mid-table all season.
No, I used to say to Aston Villa fans, why? What's the point? You never go down, you never win anything.
Year in, year out. Yeah, it's like some of these teams in the Premier League, isn't it? The Brightons and Brentfords.
Exactly.
They're not going to go down, but they're not going to finish in the top four. Where's the adrenaline? Yeah, yeah. The championship relegation zone is the bungee jump. There's a bit of peril in there, just to add to the excitement.
Feel free to tell me that I'm reading too much into this, but during the week, I saw John Massino saying that fans are frustrated with the lack of spend, the lack of big...
big names coming in for several million quid he said but once we've established ourselves in the championship which might take a season or two then the money will start to materialize to build on that so i found myself thinking this is an interesting situation it's a very volatile job being a championship manager you usually only last about 20 minutes and yet here he is i suspect already looking
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