Portsmouth 2-0 Bolton

Bloody awful performance.


Put it right, or it's the playoffs at best.

First half we did ok but conceded at the worst possible time. Second half they just pushed us back and never gave us any time on the ball so we looked poor.

Not the end of the world as TA said after a good run. Just need to make sure we make full use of the games in hand and build our own gap.

Norpig wrote:First half we did ok but conceded at the worst possible time. Second half they just pushed us back and never gave us any time on the ball so we looked poor.

Not the end of the world as TA said after a good run. Just need to make sure we make full use of the games in hand and build our own gap.

Yes, I agree with that pig, we were awful second half and perhaps the combination of Dions miss and conceding right on half time knocked the confidence but we’re still in an excellent position with games in hand and potentially winnable games to come up to the New Year so it’s entirely up to us to make up for it.

We play Portsmouth at home in April so all is not lost.

terenceanne wrote:They were faster, stronger than us last night.  They were the better team - that's all there is to it.
We passed the ball straight out of play - fooled around at the back and then passed to a man on situation. While not the end of the world I think second place is our goal at the moment.  
COYWM

Pompey are an excellent team at this level with good back up in all positions, some quality loanees and a clever manager who knew exactly how to hurt us.
That said, when we don't get things our own way, our quality in possession seems to get worse, not better - and it's happened before.
As we know we are capable of playing good stuff, it has to be a mentality issue and that can be resolved by the team shrink/Evatt and failing that, recruitment.
Whatever, it needs to be resolved because other teams will try the same approach with us.

wanderlust wrote:

terenceanne wrote:They were faster, stronger than us last night.  They were the better team - that's all there is to it.
We passed the ball straight out of play - fooled around at the back and then passed to a man on situation. While not the end of the world I think second place is our goal at the moment.  
COYWM

Pompey are an excellent team at this level with good back up in all positions, some quality loanees and a clever manager who knew exactly how to hurt us.
That said, when we don't get things our own way, our quality in possession seems to get worse, not better - and it's happened before.
As we know we are capable of playing good stuff, it has to be a mentality issue and that can be resolved by the team shrink/Evatt and failing that, recruitment.
Whatever, it needs to be resolved because other teams will try the same approach with us.

I've noticed over the years that everything to do with football in your view seems to revolve around 'mentality issues' - we are either over confident and take teams to lightly, or not mentally strong enough to be able to compete with the opposition, in this case our heads went down when things were not going our way, players aren't focused, plyers don't concentrate,..etc, etc.

It's always seems to be mental fragility issues with you for some reason?

I think that is just complete bollocks in my opinion, simply because there are eleven people on the pitch and no eleven people are the same, certainly not in attitudes.

Of course there are some over confident people in the world and some natural defeatist too and sports psychology exists to help in such issues but football at the professional level is focused on playing as a team, team bonding and working for each other, so if someone's head goes down during a game or someone shoots when they would have been better in passing to a better placed team mate, then they are brought back in line by the others.

If there are any 'mental issues' it's more likely to be personal ones between players, or the team not playing for the manager rather than some sort of 'blanket' issue that effects the team as a whole as you often like to make out.

It's more likely to me that we don't have the right leaders in the dressing room and on the pitch, a mouthy, shouty, pointy, loud, demonstrative, combative sort of persons to galvanising things when they are most needed at that moment - a Kevin Nolan types if you will, or the highly respected, leading by example type such as Gundi Bergsson.

Maybe we simply don't have such ones in our squad perhaps?

We didn't lose to Portsmouth because things didn't go our way, we lost because of our continuing weakness against physical teams - Portsmouth were simply too strong and physical for us particularly in the second half.

It's not rocket science, it was fairly obvious in the first half that Williams was not able physically to deal with Portsmouth and there was no surprise to me at least when he was hooked just after half time for Iredale and when more combative midfielders were brought on in Dempsey and Morley to replace the silky but clearly not a roll your sleeves up fighter in Maghoma and the the permanently one booking away from being sent off, Thomason.

We had for the last third of the game our 'Dogs of War' on the pitch and Portsmouth treated them as soft puppies.

It isn't (and never has been for me at least) a "mentality issue", it simply is that the players we have aren't able to deal with being 'bullied' on the pitch - and aren't the type to give it back.

We've seen it countless times under Evatt, as I say it isn't rocket science to spot what the problem really is, it just doesn't seem to be being addressed - maybe the sort of player who has the qualities to play the way Evatt wants AND do so with aggression when playing the 'physical' teams, aren't within our transfer budget and pay scales?

We are going to struggle in the Championship if we do get there without a bit more steel throughout the team imo.

Like you Sluffy, I don’t accept this mental bollocks. Against Pompey I’d say we were better than them in the first half, even after Dions miss which clearly and understandably affected him. It wasn’t just any old miss was it? Then conceding with almost the last kick of the half must have been a real gut punch to the whole team. Obviously at half time Evatt drilled into them that they must play it out from the back as instructed to do without ever taking account of Pompey’s more physical attitude. Just as obviously their manager had drilled into his players to close us down even more, which they did right from the whistle. 

How many times did Baxter pass the ball to a player closely marked who could only pass it back to him or risk trying to turn? It was lunacy and how we didn’t concede from it is a miracle. Sadly Evatt has absolutely no plan B for when circumstances demand an alternative. As for a strong minded player, we’ve actually had those who have probably gone against Evatt. Sarce, Doyler and Declan and where are they now? I don’t think Evatt wants strong minded players who will change tactics during games so when it’s not working as at Pompey, is it any wonder the players shrink into themselves? For all the good he has done, maybe it’s IE who needs to sit down and think?