THICK AND FAST

episode

Pompey Sound Podcasts 13 min 3 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 5 months ago

▲ 0

Transcript

jump: chapters · speakers · find in transcript

Transcript

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

What are the challenges faced by Pompey in their upcoming Championship match?

Duncan Barkes 0:02

As Pompey ease themselves back into the routine of preparation for a looming Championship match, players and staff are sharply conscious that the next game comes on a Friday, not a Saturday, a piece of scheduling which effectively robs them of 24 hours preparation, and even the preparations that took place on Saturday and Sunday were subject to an hour lost through clocks going forward overnight on Sunday. Some would say small matters, but when small matters pile up they become big matters. Besides with Pompey's next fixture taking place on Friday, after that, with just two full days preparation time, namely the weekend of Saturday the 4th and Sunday the 5th, it's on to the six-pointer against Oxford, which kicks off at half-past 12 in the afternoon.

Duncan Barkes 0:48

The first job on the list as the players assemble after a mini-break to recharge their batteries, is a health and fitness check on the players, especially those who are nursing everything from niggles to full-blown ailments. Naturally Pompey'll be keeping news about those developments close to their chest, all eyes and ears are out for any snippets on Ebo Adams. But coach John Massino is looking for good news on a number of his players.

Unknown 1:12

Yeah, exactly. That's precisely the case. Thank you for that. News is news, even if it's obvious.

How does player fitness impact team preparation for games?

Unknown 1:19

It still has to be reported. And those are the facts and just the facts and all of the facts that are available. We may not know until two o'clock on Friday afternoon. whether Ebo Adams has recovered from whatever it was that affected his knee at the very end of the QPR game. And, of course, we hope that he's fit. The fact that he might not play doesn't necessarily mean that he's not fit. If you listen to Steve Bone's excellent podcast, at the end he is predicting his team for Norwich and he's predicting a second XI, effectively. And the reason for that, he says, is because he wants to save all the fitness and guts that are in his first team for the much more important Oxford game. And there's a good deal of intelligent thinking there.

Unknown 2:11

I just wonder whether John Massino is prepared to go out on a limb again, having gone out on a bit of a limb, swapping Swift and Adams against QPR and sticking with it through the game.

What are the implications of TV pundits' predictions for Portsmouth's future?

Unknown 2:22

whether he's prepared to go out on a similar limb against Norwich. What we do know for sure is that we're hanging on the fitness reports about Ibai Adams, and we at Pompey Sound wonder whether that's a wise thing. We have got more than 20 other footballers who are... Well, most of them are rock-solid championship performers, and when they gel, then we can go to places like Millwall and Charlton and get a damn good performance and a damn good result. So it doesn't all hang on Iboe Adams. It would be wrong of us to even begin to think that, especially if that thinking affects the players, because if it turns out that he does have an injury which is going to sideline him, for Norwich, for Oxford, possibly until the rest of the season, then we are going to have to get on with what we've got.

Unknown 3:13

And we have to remember that what we've got is good enough to go and stuff people like, as I said, Charlton and Millwall at their gaff. And therefore, when they stitch it together, they're good enough. As the sharp end of the season heaves into view, Pompey find they face an increasing number of pressure points, one of which is the sudden appearance of TV pundits who are U-turning on the club's prospects.

How do pundits influence public perception of a football team?

Unknown 3:38

Pompey Sounds says, It's not the pundits' fault they have to make predictions, or that they are frequently mistaken. It's that they are always predictable, they predict the obvious, and they hunt in packs. Following Pompey's result at QPR, rather than analyse the breach between the game and the result, a whole slew of former players who aren't up to management and probably envy John Massigno, have gathered together to write Pompey off. Tommy Smith, himself a former Yeoman Championship defender, is now saying on Sky, I'll be honest with you, that one against QPR was a real bad one, a real damaging one.