League One anyone?

All is not well down at Fratton Park at the moment, administration, deducted points, administrator informing fans that the cash will run out in 6 weeks. It's all becoming all too real again, the threat of our club and it's future hangs in the balance, 30 staff were made redundant this week including Chief Executive David Lampitt. Another casualty of the administration is Erik Huseklepp who was our best player (and top goalscorer) has been loaned to Birmingham with a view to a permenant transfer in the summer.

Huseklepp celebrates after scoring against Blackpool
(Photo from The News)

It's such a shame he's left, his commitment was easy to see, if you saw the Barnsley highlights he rushed back to try stop the impending Barnsley second goal. His touch and technique was a welcome addition to a stifled and somewhat ageing squad.

Gloomy sky picture gets a run-out again

But it leaves us fans with a pessimistic outlook, relegation seems all too real now, it's like rewinding the clocks 15 years! Back in the Division One days when every season was almost a scrap to stay in the league, this time I fear we may not be able to get out. We have 15 games until the end of the season and in that we still face Southampton, Birmingham, Leeds and Reading still to come. Most importantly we have a important final game against Nottingham Forest which could decide our fate.

But would relegation be that bad? Yes we'd lose a lot of income in terms of TV money, but it could mean a fresh start, there a few players whom their contract runs out in the summer i.e. Mokoena and Mullins who earn a hefty wage. We may also be able to shift the high-earners who wouldn't want to drop a division or drop wages, and maybe even shift Ben-Haim off for good!
Long as kept players such as Pearce, Ward, Henderson and Futacs who have all come through recently and shown their pride and commitment to the team, and don't particularly earn massive wages. If we kept hold of them into League One I would see us with good foundations to build upon a new squad, especially if Appleton was at the helm! It would see a properly organised approach to building a team, as opposed to Cotterill's 'quality not quantity' approach which has backfired on us spectacularly!

Futacs has been a welcome addition to the striking line up, favoured over Dave Kitson

It could also open up opportunity for investment, with League One not being as difficult as the Championship it would give us enough time to invest in areas of the club that need strengthening, i.e. the youth system, the infrastructure of the club without affecting the squad itself.

Obviously this is a somewhat fanciful dream of mine, because we'd need owners first, which I'm sure there is someone waiting in the wings out there, just I'm sure they were dealt with rather poorly by Andronikou and might of been put off by his demands. Hopefully when the club is sold the new owner will allow the Supporters Trust to buy a stake in the club (or even donate 10% for example) to allow the fans to have a say in the running of the club for a change.

But for now let's concentrate on the Championship before I get ahead of myself! Leeds coming up next, don't see much coming out of this game with our threadbare squad, could be a draw, but it's going to be scrappy!

Play up Pompey!

A Little Help From Our Friend (almost)

Finally we get back to domestic football after the short lived FA Cup campaign after a 4-0 loss to Chelsea, after reading updates most of the day when I could (working you see..) it sounded like a harsh defeat. But positives came out of the game as well, such as holding a top 4 team to 0-0 for 45 minutes.

Going into the fixture against title chasing West Ham we are unbeaten at home since we lost to Peterborough 3-2 in September 2011, impressive to say the least. I wasn't sure how we would fair in this game, with injuries stretching our squad, Varney, Rocha out still the team saw Adam Webster make another return to the bench over experienced players like Kanu.

West Ham themselves have a few injuries and their form hasn't been good of late, they've never been able to capitalise on Southampton of late, whenever they've lost, West Ham have lost, vice versa with wins. So to keep the pressure on the rivals down the road they had to win, their away form is the best in the league. This was going to be a clash of form from the offset.
Now for a confession, I have no idea who Kevin Friend is (only referee's I remember are Slaughter and Deadman), maybe if I was told he was that infamous referee from the Sunderland and Reading game last season then I might of guessed where this game was going in terms of decisions....

Friend sends off Yebda against Sunderland back in 2010

The switch of ends was interesting, it was the first time this has happened at home since we played Peter....oh dear....this does not bode well. Now within 15 minutes Friend already made a few dubious decisions, such as Futacs being held, being pulled the ground etc. The decisions were soft and were never for us it seemed. Halford came close early on after Lawrence dinked a lovely ball into the penalty box and Halford headed over.

We found it difficult to get the ball of West Ham at times, they kept possession well and pushed forward slowly but with confidence, it was a boring first half in this respect. West Ham lacked clinical finish, they would push forward but never get a shot on goal, always broken down before this. Portsmouth when we ever saw the ball were too stifled and slow, again losing the midfield battle which we always do!

Then came the penalty, hard to see from the Fratton End, didn't know what it was for, but seems to have been a little bit soft, especially when Futacs had been dragged the ground twice by West Ham players prior to this, with a help of an arm around his neck! Noble scored and Henderson was unlucky not to have saved it, just getting a hand to it.

I can't really be bothered to talk about the rest of the game, as otherwise I'll just get angry about the referee! I found him to be totally incompetent at referee-ing this game, he just was not consistent. Papa Bouba Diop would go down (because he's a donkey on ice) and it's a foul, but being hacked to the floor isn't? A utter joke, the stats make us look dirty, but West Ham were no angels, Kevin Nolan should've been given another yellow for dissent for constantly trying to influence the referee, always chatting in his ear. No wonder he can't hit the target, he had 4 good chances and waste ALL of them.

The red card against Norris was baffling, he didn't take too much time thinking about it, I bet he even grinned at the possibility to show a Pompey player a red card, again. It totally ruined the game for both sides, neither played anything decent. Pompey kept trying to push for an equaliser but was thwarted by our numerical disadvantage and West Ham couldn't get a ball into a decent position to score, if they want to get promoted they need to score more goals, as we could've won/drawn the game had it not been for Norris going.

I was also left fuming by the decision of Friend to signal for a corner and then blow for full time while setting up to take the corner, which left our players very annoyed, Lawrence making his feelings clear to Kevin Friend after the game. Henderson even wanted to run up and have a go! But no, just wanted to pile on the misery more for us. I hope we don't see him again!


Another issue I'd like to raise is the poor performance level of Erik Huseklepp recently, maybe it's down to stamina or fatigue, but he hasn't been performing very well of late, giving away possession, poor passing, he just seems off the boil. But no one gives him stick, unlike a certain Dave Kitson who gets just about every curse word under the sun shouted at him, his work rate is phenomenal, he's always chasing balls, trying to get involved in play, granted sometimes it isn't fantastic, but at least he is trying! Him and Futacs are a good little partnership, maybe if we got another striker who isn't just a 6ft + tower with no pace we could utilise that system in a 4-3-3, but until then it'll be them two.

So that broke out fine home record and the start of a very very difficult few weeks. By the end of February we shall know if we are in a relegation battle or aiming to push into the play-off's. Games against Cardiff, Hull and Ipswich will be tough games, but hopefully we can at least get something out of these games, even if it's a draw.

Play Up Pompey, hope we can get in someone in on loan soon after the departure of the legend that is Herman Hreiðarsson, one of the last remaining squad members from the 2008 FA Cup winning side. He has been such a character in his time at the club, may I wish him the best of luck at Coventry, and we hope to see him again in the future!
I'll leave the blog today with a picture of his antics from the FA Cup celebrations!

Marko that! Portsmouth vs Watford

Heady days at the moment to be a Portsmouth fan, on the upside is that after yesterdays result we are unbeaten at home since the 3-2 loss to Peterborough, another is the rise of Marko Futacs into the first team. The 6ft 5' Hungarian striker has burst onto the scene after a few cameo appearances throughout the season (first time I've seen him play properly since FC Rostov and Saints game), after finishing emphatically against Leicester he was given his second start against Watford, but more of that later. I met him a few weeks back at work with his girlfriend (who was stunning) and was really friendly, no one recognised him.

I was apprehensive about this game, I think it's the fact when in the bookies prior to the game I read that Watford were on a 8 game unbeaten streak and then remembering how awful we played at the reverse fixture (worst game of football I've seen). I know from that game they have some very quick and skillful players such as Sordell and then big physical players like Iwelumo up front (he was a constant menace in the reverse fixture).
For us we had two suspensions (Halford and Ward) and injuries to count too (Rocha and Varney), it was a worry, especially with the possibility of Mokoena in defence against fast, quick players. After reading the line-up with Huseklepp, Kitson and Futacs heading our attack it sounded promising, but the first half would give a indication on how this would work.
The tribute to Len Phillips was well observed by all corners of the ground (something Watford fans aren't used to), including the away fans. The first half was entertaining for us, good passing play and pressing forward at any opportunity, Futacs and Kitson worked well together acting as holding forwards allowing everyone to get forward, it was still stifled and static at times allowing us to be punished in the midfield. Still have a lack of belief in our final third, I don't know why no one can just have a shot if they can? Do they fear ridicule? I mean it'll either go over, be saved, or go in, even go out for a corner! Kitson had a good shot at goal with a quick touch, swivel and volley but straight at Scott Loach, perhaps Norris and Kitson should have made their shots count better, as they had more time on the ball and wasted their shots at times, especially Kitson. By half time the BBC statistics said that Watford hadn't had a single shot on-target OR off-target, mind-boggling! Usually it's the other way around! Not that Watford had any chances during the first half, they had numerous but we eventually broke down the attacks and stifled it, often giving them little room to get the header or shot away, Sordell was the main danger man, quick on his feet!
A few bits of sloppy play here and there by Mokoena, kept being caught out time and again, luckily for us he wasn't punished by this, another was how slow we are to break out of the box, by the time it's kicked out Watford have got back into position! No urgency to get forward or playing it quickly.

Second half was perhaps the best team performance of the season by us I think, completely dominated the game and made Watford pay for being poor in the first half. After a lacklustre beginning in which the Fratton End went a bit silent for a while we pressed forward, constantly knocking on Watford's penalty box, after a cleared corner Lawrence and Norris combined for a quick corner and Norris crossed it deep to be met by Futacs who headed top corner to put us in the lead, well deserved for the lad as he worked hard during the game, him and Kitson were being a nuisance to the Watford defence (who may I add are quite short for defenders? With two 6ft 4/5 strikers in the box they were not going to win anything!) throughout the game. Straight from the restart we pressed again. Carl Dickinson fouled Liam Lawrence shortly after the goal which led to much banter between him and the fans, chants of "You're fucking useless, we've seen you before" etc. which led to him revealing his 'golden boys' later to the Fratton End, much to the guffawing Fratton End!

Futacs celebrating after scoring against Watford (from Daily Mail)

Then came what we thought was the 2nd goal, but wasn't, I thought Lawrence wasn't offside, Appleton doesn't believe he was either. After a quick break Mattock worked his way into a shooting opportunity and let rip a curling shot which Scott Loach was equal to but had to only palm it away Lawrence pounced on the looping ball to head into a exposed goal, cue jubilant celebrations but quickly quelled with the sight of the linesman's flag, it caught everyone by surprise, even Sky Sports News reported the goal before rescinding it.
A mention quickly to mention the Watford fans who cheekily chanted at us "Shall we sing a song for you" which was met by a few laughs since I seem to remember Vicarage Road is one of the quietest stadiums I've been at since Loftus Road! 1,700 out sang all of home fans I seem to remember! The banter stretched to a quick and silly "Da da da da fucking Eustace" when he came on a sub.
More pressing play from Pompey which kept us fans on our toes as we were hoping for the second killer goal in the last 15 minutes of the game after Lawrence's header was ruled out earlier, and our moment looked to come in the form of Scott Loach being sent off after handling outside the box while challenging the oncoming Futacs, it was hard to call from where I was sitting, I thought he impeded a goalscoring opportunity, but the reports say different and seem more correct. On came the young Jonathan Bond and boy was he tested after, we piled on the pressure once more, constantly looking for the killer goal, it didn't take long though. A cross by Erik into the box was mis-kicked by Mullins who then controlled once more and fired low into the net, game over, it was the killer goal we needed to make sure we got 3 precious points, the relief was felt all around the ground and probably the manager too. Nearly grabbed as Futacs beared down on goal, rounded the defender and let rip a thunderous shot that cannoned off the upright and over, what a hit it was! We all thought it was going in! The man of the match was a bit dubious (Henderson....), I personally would've either given it to Lawrence or Futacs, they played brilliantly and were instrumental to the victory, always moving into space and creating chances, especially Lawrence, finally getting back to his old self which is good!

Overall it was the best team performance of the season, we piled on the pressure and were right on top of the game throughout, after worrying about the game prior to kick-off I'm mightily relieved to come away with a 2-0 victory going into what is a tough fixture list ahead. Improved performances from Lawrence who has steadily improved and getting back to his best after a poor start to the season. I also think this is the first of many good performances from Marko Futacs, he has great skill and composure for someone his age and looks to be a real bargain if he continues to perform well. Has a cracking shot on him, as well as his heading ability, makes you wonder how the team will shape up after Varney is back from full fitness, maybe a 4-3-3 formation might appear? Who knows, but for now it's all about Marko Futacs and his explosive start to the starting line-up, long may it continue!

Up next is tricky games ahead, FA Cup away tie against Chelsea, title chasing West Ham and 'rivals' Cardiff in the next 3 weeks! Let's hope for some loan signings in the window, but that's for another blog! Play Up Pompey!