Portsmouth vs Blackpool

It's been over a month since the last match report, has been a very long time! Now the transfer window has closed and the loan window has opened and we've not signed anyone, but with Steve Cotterill I trust as I know he'll keep his cards close to him to thwart interest from other clubs.

Going into this game I wasn't sure what the outcome would be, I would settle for a draw, a win would be fantastic. Blackpool are a far stronger team, they possess a large portion of their Premier League side from last season, with real threats coming from ex-scummer Kevin Phillips, Paul Ince and Gary Taylor-Fletcher. Ian Holloway I'm sure wants to get these 3 points as it is a long journey back north after the game!
After a miserable defeat at Hull where we didn't have one shot on target I was hoping to see more conviction and promise that seemed to have been shown at the West Ham game. I've previously been frustrated with our lack of attacking play, poor passing and persistent playing down the left have stifled our start to the season.

Not a great start to the game when the sound system seems to have completely died and was screeching at an ear splitting level. This was fixed just before the game started. Also noticed the big screen has moved from the corner of the Milton End and is now mounted on the front of the Milton End, looks much better now. Can see the owners are looking to improve and change the ground for the better. The usual lay off and shoot warm up was a delight to watch, Halford looked the most sharp in this particular field, as per usual, always up for drilling a shot on goal, Henderson again doing well to stop shots.

The first half was alright it had more flow to it then previous games, we pressed forward early on but Blackpool were on top though, they constantly kept pushing forward and were playing some great through balls which fortunately for us were poorly finished. They were a constant threat coming forward, we held tight with some great tackles from Jason Pearce and Greg Halford, which ended in one incident with Paul Ince being booked for diving. Joel Ward came closest for us with a quick header that flashes inches wide of Gilks goal. Still by half time we had not had one shot on target, not a great sign to be honest.
The referee was being a bit happy with the cards showing, I swear I've seen his name before, I must try find out when he last refereed against us, I think it was that fateful Crystal Palace thrashing last year.

At half time the new season ticket prize draw was first conducted, it's a nice little touch for us season ticket holders, a gesture for paying out for one after it the ticket prices had risen over the last year. The last prize is a car! Imagine winning that!

The second half started much better for both teams, it became end to end, with attack after attack, but we seem to defend with more resolute clearing then Blackpool. But we didn't take full advantage of this and soon came the deafening silence when the singing and drums stopped, it was eerie, it's the first time I've ever heard this at Fratton Park, to be fair the game was utterly dull at the time. The ball was pinging around the middle of the pitch and wasn't going anywhere. It was embaressing though, the famous fortress Fratton had fell silent and was out of ideas. The people who 'hate' the drums had won their 'peaceful battle'. But after Kanu and Rocha came on the pitch the noise levels rose once more! The last 5 minutes the ball was constantly moving around the Blackpool penalty box and the chance of a goal was agonisingly close. Joel Ward once again was fortunate as a low shot stretched Matt Gilks to make a smart save. Liam Lawrence came close as well by working well down the right hand channel and running in on goal to only be thrwarted by Gilks once more. Then came our moment of magic, the ball came in and Blackpool defender flicked it on away from the player, Huseklepp who had been outstanding that day took one touch and then volleyed the ball back on himself and the ball sweetly curled into the top corner with Gilks watching helplessly. Cue huge celebrations from Fratton Park, everyone around where I sat including myself went crazy, it was a fantastic hit and a sweet first goal for the Norwegian!
It was great to see the players all run over to the touchline and congratulate Erik and Cotterill together, it shows how together the team is and how much the are behind the manager which is great to see, that goal was pretty much the end of the game, but what a finish! The shouts of 'Erik the Viking' rang out for a good 5 minutes as the players took their lap of honor. Erik looked shocked as we did about the goal going in! He had worked hard, the highlight of his game (apart from the goal, obviously) was his 90 yard dash from the Milton/South stand corner all the way to the Fratton End/North Stand corner without being tackled or passing only to be fouled, a great run!

Now in truth the game was poor, our passing was not up to scratch, often losing possession far to easily and our slow tempo often worked in Blackpool's favour and nearly punished us in the first half because of this. With the introduction of Kanu the tempo and attitude changed, with more focus on attacking and trying to get the critical goal, which was great to see but a little late in the game to be chasing this? Surely we should be attacking from the outset, I mean, we are at home which is where we can use our surrondings to our advantage? (Small touchline, raised pitch etc.)
There were some good performances with Huseklepp and Halford being the stand out performers, always focused and looking to break forward whenever possible, good mentions to Lawrence and Mullins who were doing some good work in the midfield. I was sad not to see Futacs not come on the pitch as would like to get a better look at how he will fit into our team, rather than see him only warm up.

Since writing this article we have signed Bjorn Helge Riise from Fulham on loan, this is a great signing for the team, a guy with good experience of Premier League and Championship level, he's probably match fit and can go straight into the team I'm imagining.
Now against Peterborough tomorrow, hoping for another 3 points with a good performance to boot, Peterborough are a good attacking team, you can only see their tally of 80+ goals last season to tell that, they have lost their talisman Mackail-Smith in the transfer window but they still pose a threat. Their mauling of Ipswich a few weeks ago is a good example of this.

Let's hope a good home debut of Marko and Riise will provide a good attacking edge to our game and kick start a good winning streak that will hopefully boost our league position and get close to our neighbors, as they've had it quite easy so far in their fixtures.

Thought of chants we could sing about Erik if we get bored of the slightly dull 'Erik the Viking', which is daft in some cases...
But I liked the idea of one to the tune of Eric the Half-a-Bee by Monty Python, just a bit of the chorus though...it would go;

La-dee-dee, 1-2-3,
Erik Hus-e-klepp!
Here he comes, to score again!
Erik Hus-e-klepp!

Here is a highlights video if you wish to see that Huseklepp goal once more, looks just as good on TV!

Not a lot to talk about?

Not a lot to talk about on the Portsmouth front really. All that could've been said got said at the Portsmouth Fans Forum for BBC Solent on Tuesday, good to see Cotterill sticking up for his players and making sure what he says to them stays private.

No I am here today to talk about AFC Bournemouth's chairman Eddie Mitchell's post on the official website after recieving a bit of stick from fans. He's been accused of having no passion for the club and not removing debt. But what I find most intriguing is his detail account of the clubs expenditure over the past few months. Gives a fascinating read into the costings at a football club apart from the transfer of players.
He spent a whopping total- £3,278,100 on improvements to the ground and club facilities, these include;

• Purchasing a new mini bus for the Youth Team as the old one was a danger for kids to travel in. £10k
• New vehicle bought to tow the Cherriette around town and different locations giving the club the opportunity to get the AFCB brand out there and also sell merchandise at the same time. £7.5k 
• Completely renovate home dressing room and purchase of hi-spech ice bath instead of using two wheelie bins. £40k
• Creating a new supporters bar and café on the ground floor called 'Legends'. £14,500
• Converting and refurbishing the once derelict and unfurnished East Stand, to make classrooms for the Community Trust and Youth Department that house over 40 pupils. £50k
• Upgrading certain IT systems. £10k
• Providing a new score board. £25k
• Relaying new playing surface and relaying new sand base under the grass for better drainage. £12k

It's a real mix of different expenditures here, some odd and some relevant. I mean £25k for a scoreboard is a high price and never knew before they cost that much to purchase/install! Weirdest one goes out to the Cheriette....how bizzare, I don't think even us in Portsmouth have something that similar (unless we put make up on Linvoy Primus...). I wish more clubs would be as open to this kind of thing, even if it's not everything it gives us fans an idea into how much money is spent on the clubs over a period of time. Here I really feel for Mr Mitchell as the fans are getting on his back for what seems petty reasons, I wonder if they'd swap this comfortable financial position for being in administration and languishing in League Two dropzone? I know which one I'd choose!

If anyone wants to read the full open letter with expenditure details it can be found here;

http://www.afcb.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10324~2450934,00.html

Next for Portsmouth is a trip to the Humberside to face Hull! I'm in Yorkshire this weekend visiting Lightwater Valley and Flamingoland, hoping for a good win. Least it's not like last seasons Hull away game where we were on the brink of liquidation!

2-1 win I feel! 

The 3rd Kit from the 90s

So the new Pompey 3rd kit has been announced, strange to announce it so late into the season, usually it's all done at once in August. Immediatley sparked my interest from the bold red and black colours, harking back to the old kit from 93-94 season, which is probably my first season of watching Portsmouth games.
Some say it's too similar to Southampton's kit? Why, because it's red? Some fans seriously need to get a grip on reality, we play in red socks and I don't see anyone comparing that to Southampton, nor does having white shorts are similar to Southampton?

Anyway here is the new 3rd kit!

 

It's got the same H style 'panel' look on the front which is on the rest of the kits. The 93-94 away kit is reversed with the red being on the left hand side. This way round almost makes it look like what Mr Fry pointed out as 'similar to Harley Quinn' which is true! The Kappa women is a interesting reversal of each side.

Just for comparison here is the old 93-94 kit;

 

Still prefer this one I feel, and still prefer the black kit. I can't name many teams where we shall need to wear this 3rd kit for...

Shocking Away Kits

This is a rather dull day, job searching and already been shopping, so time to look at some of the worst away kits of the season, and there are a few out there!

Let's begin this with Brighton & Smug Albion (hehehe)

So the kit is a horrific neon green and black striped shirt, now I don't mind green and black but on the pitch it hurts the eyes to even look at this. If it was any more neon you could use it to warn people of oncoming traffic!

This one isn't a bad kit, just unfortunatley looks like another teams home kit....

Anyone else see the similarity to this and Norwich's home kit? Haha

Next kit is from the city of Nottingham, the Forest kit is the team in question;

Looks like a polo shirt slightly with the style of the kit, but this was made by Umbro which has a similar style on the new England shirts, so must be common with their kits. The shoulder green colour is really strange, if it covered the arms as well it probably would have worked more aesthetically. But I'm not a fashion designer....

Holy mother of neon! This one is another eye catcher!

So painful to wear even the bloke in the photo dosen't look too comfortable wearing it! It's not great is it? Neon orange with a tad bit of black on the shoulders. At least it'll be easier to spot the players when it's winter!

Going down the road to Sheffield there is a dull kit being worn away from home, it's grey, it's got an owl on it, it's Sheffield Wednesday!

Why would you want a grey kit? I mean it's just dull, the owl on the bottom of the kit is the only saving grace to be honest, it's just so plain and unimaginative, even the photo is skillfully taken in the car park! Not on the pitch, or some fancy green screen job! It's as grey and dull as the chairman's hair.

Another neon shirt now, Yeovil this time, not sure what highlighter colour have I not covered yet?! This time it's yellow!

Just looks so bad....the sponsor looks so out of place and hideous on the neon green strip, I wonder if the sponsor is happy about that. The little black stripe across the chest isn't bad, but dosen't recover the kit for me!

Pink strips always are eyebrow raiser to any football fan, Bradford are the latest club to opt for a pink away strip (remember that Everton one?) So that's most the highlighter colours sorted then!

Just dosen't work, especially in contrast to the home kit which always to me looks like a gone off Rhubarb and Custard sweet! If it was for charity then maybe it wouldn't be so bad....

Not sure if this is a coincidence or not but it appears that Southend have pretty much the same away kit as Bradford, made by Nike as well, curious;

 

Has to be done while I now get onto the Premier League...

Are you Bournemouth in disguise!? That's all I've got on that one...

Newcastle have had a few funny away kits in their time, but they went dutch this season!

It's just hurting my eyes, not even a few strips of black could save this one from being ridiculed. I bet they could be mistaken for the goalkeeper!? Once again it's a good winter kit, stand out against the snow eh?

I was going to mention Swansea's kit which looks just as similar but not as bad as this one!

I hope you've enjoyed this rant, I feel I've been just and fair on these kits, not gone to town on them. All the kits, trademarks, photographs are copyright of their parent clubs and respective parties.

Portsmouth vs Cardiff

This will probably be written as the transfer window SLAMS shut! I should've done this over the tedious and often dull coverage Sky Sports has given myself this sunny day! I probably didn't need to sit for 6 hours in front of the TV, but I did...
During that time Portsmouth lost to Real Betis 5-1 in Sevilla and signed no one (I'm content with that as we have a good team atm, need loan bolstering).

Once again we face Cardiff early on in the season at home, this time Cardiff aren't as strong as they were in 2010 and we are not as weak as then. This time it could be said the teams were both evenly matched, with Cardiff signing Andrew Taylor (big bloke!), Robert Earnshaw, Kenny Miller etc. they look formidable. After a tedious 0-0 draw with Bristol City we had our first chance look at Erik Huseklepp and it seemed very promising with him turning and flat footing many City defenders! So would he be able to replicate this once more against Cardiff and terrorize the defense of the Welsh team?
We went into the game with the knowledge of another signing which is Marko Futacs a Hungarian international from Werder Bremen on a free, a striker by position and at 6ft 5 inches will give Kitson a challenge in the first team (which is nice).

The warm up was interesting, usually it isn't, but seeing Futacs and Huseklepp warm up gave us a taste of what they can do, especially the strange new training routine which I've not seen before (forgive me I've not seen this) of passing it to a coach, they lay it off on the edge of the box and the player strikes it first time at the goal with Henderson between the sticks. Interesting because the first player was Huseklepp who hit a rocket of a shot into the top corner, made the Fratton end somewhat excited!

Onto the game! The line-up looked like Cotterill had opted for a 4-4-2 formation with Kitson and Huseklepp partnered up front, a promising start! We looked to finally break away from the stifling 4-5-1 formation. The first half was alright, it wasn't a pulse racing first half as usual, Cardiff were far more threatening in the first half, in terms of clear shots on target, our best chance was a strange cross/shot from Joel Ward which dipped and pinged off the crossbar, very unlucky! Robert Earnshaw was a right handful for the defense with Ben Haim and Pearce kept very busy. First gripe is our stifled attacks, I mean we just don't go for it, if a attack by Cardiff is stopped we just wait around holding possession in the hope that a long ball can be used with Kitson flicking it on to head into the box, but this never works! It never does, mainly because Kitson track backs too much at the moment, often he is found too wide nearly taking off players kneecaps! An example of this is when Kitson stole the ball off a defender who was being too lethargic around the halfway line and then passed it to Lawrence. Now I thought Kitson would run into a attacking position and run towards goal, but he decided to track back!? WHY?! He should've been running in on goal, this led to a large groan from the entire stadium and almost bemusement from the Cardiff fans.
Huseklepp was kept quiet, he was man managed well by the Cardiff defense and given no room to move around in, which i think dosen't suit him at all. Never the less he had a few flashes of good skill in possession. Again we attacked down the left hand side which was quickly dealt with after the 10th time of doing it, Huseklepp and Lawrence were stood idle on the right side, almost anonymous! Half time came and agreeing with the people behind me "Could've had more fun at a funeral".

Second half was much better (strange eh?) we looked more threatening, changed to a 4-3-2-1 formation with Huseklepp and Varney in winger positions and Kitson as lone striker. Again we stifled in our attacks, focusing more on going down the left hand side and feeding crosses into the box, rather than shots or short passing into the box (or a mix of the three be nice). After some dreadful play by Kitson who was working hard but kept doing too much I felt, it's nice but he often led to loss of the ball and stifled attacks. Benjani got changed and we thought it be the end of Kitson, nope, Huseklepp went off which was agreeable as he had a forgettable home debut, with little touches and almost forgotten on the right hand side it was time for him to go. Halford was unfortunate not to score after his free kick shot rocketed off the post, was such a fierce strike! Cardiff then got the goal they were often threatening with a superbly worked goal, with the ball flashing from the right to the left and fell to Andrew Taylor in space to pick his spot and hammer home to the delight of the horrid Cardiff fans who tried to trample the stewards and get onto the pitch. Why not celebrate where you stand?!
We responded well by trying to go for goal once more, constantly attacking, threatening, so much so we had two very close goal line chances, first one I swear was over the line! But don't think the ball was all the way over to be honest, just a quick gut instinct! The second fell to Benjani with the goal at his mercy and he slammed it into the defender on the line, shame, but he didn't have much time to place his shot, only to hit it first time.
Then on the 80th minute came our reward, after a cross deflected back to Ben Haim he tracked back and picked a cross heading to the far post which Kanu got down low and headed past David Marshall to make the score level! Good cross and great finish from the 55, 43, 35 year old striker!
The rest of the game was both teams fighting back and forth towards each others halves trying to get the winning goal, both counting out each of their attacks.

Overall it was a interesting game, with some positives and negatives. The positives is that as a team we seem more a unit, especially our defensive line up which seemed solid and able to cope well with most Cardiff attacks.
But again our going forward mentality is stifled, and gives the chance for the opposing team to regroup and block out our attacks. Moving down the left flank and getting cut out as we try switch the play, or often hoofing the ball over the midfield and into the often caught out Kitson leading to lost possession.

I don't know what we need to do to improve this, perhaps a loan signing of an creative/attacking midfielder to give us that edge in the middle of the pitch. We shall see how Futacs gets on in his first game and if Huseklepp gets a good innings against West Ham also.

Enough of my ramblings! Hope you enjoyed this report!

Oh Pompey did sign someone today, it was Jed Wallace from Lewes, yup, massive signing ;)

Typed through tears of a lost opportunity!

So he finally moved clubs, the goal scorer from up north....Adam Le Fondre, he made a £350,000 move to.....

 

Reading....(so glad we've already played them)

So Portsmouth missed out on a proven English striker who gets goals for a living, he has 110 league goals in 256 games, so an average of 2.3 a game! And only 24! But no we spend £1.5m on Erik Huseklepp who has scored about 40 goals over 175 appearances which is a mediocre 0.23 per game. Tepid in comparison. Some would argue it's because Erik played at a 'higher level' but if he's a striker he should be bagging goals, look at someone like Darren Bent, he has a great scoring record and has played at a high level for a long time (140 goals all in the Premier League over 10 years).

But I hope I'm proved wrong after today, he was quiet Huseklepp but he did have 2/3 defenders on him at one time, but that's for another blog! I will say I hope our own new number 9 is much better than our no.18 the ginger ninja Mr Dave Kitson, my word.....

BUT £350k, missed a bargain out there!!! Could've bought 4.2 Le Fondre's for the price of Erik Huseklepp....puts into perspective, especially if Le Fondre scores more goals than Erik!

No match report for Reading

I feel bad for not getting around to doing the Reading game report, seems a shame to not comment on such a interesting game....But I do find it funny that after complaining about Cotterill using the left hand side too much that even my dad has started to notice this rather bemusing tactic!

Errr should say something else...errr....sign this bloke please Cotterill, should cost 500k-750k, pretty please?

 

(Adam Le Fondre if you don't know my admiration for him)

Stevie sign him up! Stevie Stevie sign him up!