I was warned that Brighton and Gus Poyet were not the most sporting of teams, with soft players and apparent time wasting.
Pre-match was memorable for good reason, FREE FLAGS!!! I mean the announcement of a new signing, which made me perk up from whatever was going on Facebook at the time. After bemoaning about lack of signings with loads of free agents a familiar face walks onto the field which is Benjani! Apparently the deal was done in less than 48 hours, hence the lack of speculation, this led to a massive cheer from the crowd and the chants of 'Benjani-woaaaah!'. Interesting signing from Cotterill, long as he's near match fitness and is willing to slot in straight away it would bolster our weakest area of our squad.
Now onto the game itself, as the players came out they were welcomed by the sight of around 14,000 flags being waved from all the home ends of the stadium, looked like this;
Great reception, followed by a rousing chime!
Now the first half was a massive improvement from Tuesday night, the team looked to have more consistent passing and attacking promise. The line up suggested another odd 4-5-1 with Kanu up front and Varney on the wing. This worked alright, with Kanu and Varney creating good chances but the lack of a finish let us down, I couldn't work out whether we were doing an 'Arsenal' by trying to create the 'perfect goal', we at least tested the goalkeeper. What stifled our game the most and frustrated both fans and players was the referee, I mean every 5 minutes there was a foul that felt somewhat soft or unexplainable, it quickly kept halting the game, especially when both teams were battling in midfield. It didn't suit either team, then the goal that came in the injury time of the first half was dubious. Noone struck his ball which was well saved by Ashdown but not collected allowing Mackail-Smith moving from an offside position to somehow tuck the ball away sending the snot green fans mental. The Pompey players reacted well by going down the other end and sending a good attacking move which was comfortably saved by the goalkeeper.
Second half was not as good as the first in my mind, the creativity seemed to have stopped, at times the players were being too rigid in their positions, easily picked up, with passes constantly being intercepted. At one point the players with the ball looked confused as what to do because there was no opportunity opening up except for passing back to the keeper! It shows a real worrying lack of attacking flair in our midfield, this may of been from constant investment of defensive minded players as opposed to attacking. Again the referee started making a nuicance of himself again, booking players for some minor fouls and sparing the Brighton players for all of it, an instance of this was when Mokoena raised his foot into a challenge and won the ball fairly but was booked for this and a free kick to Brighton. Now same incident again but to a Portsmouth player, he missed and clipped Ben Haim's ankle, no foul, no card, just rolled out for a throw, just felt this referee had a grudge for us. Speaking of Brighton players, my friend was right about their sportmanship, or the lack of it, they took way to long taking any set piece, worst of them being goal kicks, which seemed to take around 5 minutes just to place the ball!
Towards the end I was getting more annoyed at our lack of ambition and drive to get an equaliser, with time running out Cotterill has his plan of throwing on Kitson on (presumably for Kanu, tried), no, for Joel Ward...errr yeah. So Kitson comes on and immediatley starts clattering into people, getting angry, then is yellow carded for his troubles, not a great start...Cotterill throws on Ryan Williams with 10 minutes to go and what do you know, again the young lad gets into a great position, turns and is through on goal, but bloody passes it!? SHOOT for god sake! Least then you could earn a corner for your troubles. I did however admire the drive to get the equaliser at the end, the constant sending in of balls for which one pinged off the outstretched hand of a Brighton player, should be a straight red for deliberate handball, as it was way above the heads of people, no reason for it to be there! No it was a yellow, pathetic.
Liam Lawrence stepped up to seal the draw and send the Fratton faithful home with something to maybe smile about (as well as Benjani), but unfortunately the post intervened, I'm not going to have a go at Lawrence as he hit it well and just a tad unlucky it didn't hit the inside of the post, we could all see how much it meant to him getting that goal. Just a shame the goalkeeper rubbed it in after the final whistle went. Don't think he'll get a great reception on his next visit!
Tactics again come up this match report, as they always seem very stifled and stuffy, a 4-5-1 at home isn't a great tactic, however much you bleat on about having a 'lack of players', some of those players looked lost and bereft of ideas by the end of the game. I however did like Kitson dropping to the bench and being replaced by Kanu, it helped create more chances, rather than using a long ball system which leads to nothing. Hopefully with Benjani on board now we could swap to a 4-4-2 formation, using two midfielders and two wingers (maybe give Ryan Williams a start?), plus we have Jason Pearce making his first start at Reading after his 3 match ban that overlapped from last season being fulfilled.
I read today that Cotterill is hoping to sign some more players before the Reading game, but the deadline has passed so I doubt it, unless he's going to sign some more golden oldies and show them off before the game kicks off? What we lack is a presence up front, we have a great defense, with some solid defenders, I mean Mokoena and Ben Haim were solid at the back, often holding up or clearing any danger and stifling Brighton's attacks and keeping them quiet.
Perhaps a 1-2 more forwards, get one permanent and one loan signing which would give us options and flexibility, and we also need a linchpin attacking midfielder, like a new Kranjcar or Pedro Mendes, able to score goals himself and create many more for his team-mates.
With 15 days until the transfer window comes to a close I sure hope the new owners are taking notes when they watch our games, as they need to help Cotterill get the players in, as I don't think the name Steve Cotterill followed by Portsmouth FC aren't the most appealing of club moves in football at the moment. But let's keep the faith and carry on!
Now it's Tuesday (shows how long it's taken to write this post!) and we play Reading, last season it was a scrappy 1-1 affair with Jimmy Kebe equalising in the 89th minute. Now with Shane Long off to West Brom and their win over favourites Leicester it will either be a good win for us, or a goal fest for both teams, 7-4 again guys?! Benjani hat-trick?! I can dream on....
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