Portsmouth 1-0 Bolton

Bolton go into this on the back of a stunning last gasp fight back which earned a point against Gillingham. 
We are ahead of Pompey in the table, and in fact our position in the table might not tell the whole story of how we have performed this season. Pompey, meanwhile, have won only 2 games since August (out of 13) and have been conceding goals for fun (a bit like us).
Expect an open game, with Bolton sticking with just Doyle up top. I'll hedge my bets and say 3-2 to the whites.

Anybodys guess on this one. Will our comeback last week lift the guys? Can we stop conceding early goals? Even if we do concede can we quickly get them back against a weak Pompey defence and will Baka really be much of a miss? So many questions today but I don’t see a draw and if we play Dapo in the central role supporting Doyle, I think it can be transformational. Head says Pompey 3-1 but I’m going with my heart and 3-1 to the Whites.

We'll get dicked, 2 or 3 nil.

Well I have to leave the game at HT to take my granddaughter to her Halloween party, so I’m hoping that we aren’t the usual 2 goals down or the frown on her pumpkin won’t have anything on mine!!

One shot on target in the entire game. Says it all.

Evatt Out!

Blackpool Rock crumbling now?

Really Evatt out?

1 shot on target didn't really tell the story of hitting the woodwork 3 times. All three of those could have gone in.

Would anyone have complained then?

Another poor, poor performance.

Not too bad in the first half, but second half absolutely dreadful.

The manager is paying for his poor signings in attack. Did anyone really think Kachunga & Bakayoko were going to score goals going off their records? And Doyle, for all his effort, just doesn't cut it at this level.

I read the three of them have 2 (yes, TWO) goals between them from open play this season. Don't know if that's true but it won't be far off.

This week the manager said "Our philosophy and identity will never change – we’re always going to try to be a possession-based football team". Perhaps he should consider changing our identity to one that scores the odd goal?

We're 4 points off the relegation places and dropping like a stone, get rid now before it's too late.

Evans out.

We are not learning - backwards and sideways passing is just to slow - other teams are moving it faster.

Today we were the better team in the first half but couldn't hold our wads in the second.

The subs today made no sense either.  Ian will plod on with the same in the next game I'm afraid to say.

14th in the league now and no sign of a goal in the near future. Still not at the half way point in the season but Mid-table is looking more like a realistic goal for us right now.

I reckon a top half finish will be a success, going down would be a failure. Playoffs would be success beyond expectation.

Didn't see any of the game as i was out for an early birthday meal but it sounds like we had no goal threat especially in the second half. Doyle is not doing the business and it shows the squad isn't as deep as we thought if Delf got a start yesterday.

Norpig wrote:Didn't see any of the game as i was out for an early birthday meal but it sounds like we had no goal threat especially in the second half. Doyle is not doing the business and it shows the squad isn't as deep as we thought if Delf got a start yesterday.

I only listened until basically we’d conceded then had to go out but I expected after the first half that we would come back but clearly we were awful second half. As you say Norpig, we have no goal threat, just as we haven’t all season and most of last. Evatt’s signings have been awful, especially Kachunga and for me, Bako too. Retaining the likes of Delf, admittedly under contract, whilst sending out both Politic and Darcy is now proving a poor decision. It’s always easy with hindsight and Baka and Kacha could have come off despite their humble records but they just haven’t. 

When you look at other teams we’re competing with, they just seem bigger and more physical, winning most tackles and certainly aerial ones. Evatt failed in August not bringing in another striker but to be fair to him, he may have been constrained financially by Sharon. That can’t happen in January or I can’t see us staying up. Hopefully he’ll bring back both DP and RD from loan at least because both are surely better than his other options. I’m nowhere near binning Evatt, he’s done well given the circumstances but he has to improve because if he doesn’t improve things after the next window and we’re fighting relegation, I think patience will run out with him.

Just watched the highlights and Isgrove is not a RB, we need to be more solid at the back so either stick with Brockbank or go to a back 3 for now. Kachunga is poor and doesn't bring anything to the team.

Mid table would be great at the moment but we need to be more worried about getting sucked into a relegation battle.

Norpig wrote:Didn't see any of the game as i was out for an early birthday meal

Big Mac or Chicken McNuggets?

Norpig wrote:Just watched the highlights and Isgrove is not a RB, we need to be more solid at the back so either stick with Brockbank or go to a back 3 for now. Kachunga is poor and doesn't bring anything to the team.

Mid table would be great at the moment but we need to be more worried about getting sucked into a relegation battle.

I think there coud be a lot of sucking this season.