It was a familiar story.
Unable to to defend at times and several scary moments with the ball bouncing around near our goal before they eventually scored just after half time. We threw caution to the wind AFTER we'd conceded and although we pressed them back we really didn't look like scoring from open play.
Key points for me were:
* some poor passing and miscontrols when in possession led us to giving the ball away unnecessarily far too often. Morley was awful first half especially and there were others. Movement was OK but it's wasted when the pass is crap or it's miscontrolled when it arrives. We need quality and consistency to play the way Evatt would like and I'm not convinced we've got it.
* no ball winning/fight/steel in midfield until MJ came on although Dempsey did OK at the beginning. I'd have kept Dempsey on and hooked Morley for MJ in this game - but clearly Evatt doesn't think they can play together. All well and good having creative midfielders but they have to be able to win the ball in order to have the right to be creative with it.
* Kacha, who hasn't really impressed so far, played really well today and the run he made into the box to "win" the penalty from near the halfway line was excellent. Bit of a dive at the end though
* Aimson was like a rabbit in the headlights and was pressed into mistakes a couple of times too many. Certainly not as comfortable as Santos - who pulled his hammy and hopefully it isn't too serious.
* Overelaborate in front of goal and too slow in the build up again - forcing the strikers to chase the ball instead of getting service where it matters
* Took too many chances at the back against a decent press
A draw was OK but I think Pompey were marginally the better side overall.
Plenty to work on and areas in need of better quality in the summer.
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