Pompeii v Swindon pre match chat and matchday thread

[Nemo]

Yeah I think this is mildly better than Saturday, but that is no endorsement at all. Pompey look pretty comfortable.

Of the Town players, Thompson looks bright but maybe trying to run at his winger a bit more often than I'm comfortable with. Missilou looks pretty good with the ball at his feet and is at least trying, but doesn't look like he's going to transform our team. Otherwise, not much to say, we've not really threatened in their final third.

[Gnasher]

39 minutes without conceding 

[RedRag]

7 minutes and the first goal seemed inevitable and duly arrived.  They were passive and Pompey look focussed and decent.

No criticism of the players' efforts from me.  They've quietened Pompay down, relatively, after a demoralising start.  Shezzaball never looks particularly likely to produce a goal but the players deserve out support for sticking to their allotted task.

Not sure that it's realistic to expect us to outplay Pompey.  Admittedly that would be an impossibility inder Shezza.

Travers busy and very sound!

[Legends-Lounge]

good half. Was expecting to get a real kicking. Suppose there is still plenty of time.

I expect Mr. Jacket will be very concise and constructive in his half time team talk on how to slaughter a team that is basically asking to be slaughtered. Dinosorearse will continue to motivate the Town with a tirade of expletives waxing lyrical about when was a player about what he did or didn’t do and that they are not worthy to be in his presence.

[Peter Venkman]

Only positives for me really have been Travers who has stopped a rout so far and Thompson who looks lively, Conroy made a couple of interceptions as has Odimayo but the rest have been poor.

I don't see what others see in Missilou, he looks poor with the ball and keeps faling to the floor too easily, no better than L2 standard for me so far, but each to his own, I just don't see what he brings.

[bathford]

39 minutes without conceding 

Well that's an improvement..

[Red Frog]

Can we have a Fit & Proper Managers Test? Whose selling FA badges on the sly?

[Formerly Drummer Boy]

Fuck me.. We look like Lego men that a child has swapped the legs with another Lego man. Our only tactic is to hoof it up a windy pitch and hope Brett Pitman can be a million places at once to hold it up and play someone in. Formation is not working. Look flat as a pancake and doing nothing to hurt or even threaten Portsmouth.. This is dire and without the commentary, it means I have to really pay attention to know what’s going on, which is hard when it’s utter dogshit.

[Nomoreheroes]

Very scrappy game. Pompey don't look all that good and we look lacking in any quality.

Shape looks all over the shop. We keep trying to play down the left, but it's all in vain.

Everything looks frantic.

The back four haven't been all that bothered, except when relying on support from the midfield to defend second balls from corners etc.

Not sure that anyone in midfield scores more than 2-3.

Garrick looks lonely out right. Hope doesn't give us any on the left and Pitmans main contribution was giving the V sign to Sheridan!

Travers looks a good keeper though!

[RobertT]

On the game - um, it's scrappy, we are second best, we had a chance, Travers is much better than Kovar.  Everyone else is probably just scared to be near the ball for fear of getting their name hollered across the pitch with a string of expletives.

Missolou is sitting too deep, giving them space in front of the defence.  Payne looks lost, as he often does when not played where he half decent.  Both wings are pointless - we knock it long down the middle.  Pitman is Pitman.  Palmer a non entity,.  It's just grinding out another defeat.

There is zero pattern to our play, nobody has much clue beyond figuring out where their special spot is on the pitch, standing there and waiting.  Sometimes the defenders pass it about a bit before knocking it long, sometimes they do it early and sometimes it goes to a fullback who has no option, placed under pressure and lumps it long or out.

Other than that, it's all looking good.

Odimayo has looked good today.  I think, for all his versatility, he makes a better centre back.  Keep it simple for him and let him grow into that role.

[Power to people]

Any chance of Dino Sheridan getting sacked at half time ?

[Nemo]

I don't see what others see in Missilou, he looks poor with the ball and keeps faling to the floor too easily, no better than L2 standard for me so far, but each to his own, I just don't see what he brings.

Falling to the floor has won a few free kicks, and he doesn't seem to lose the ball easily when he has it. Not looking exceptional, but if Lyden miraculously recovered and it came to dropping him or Palmer, I'd rather see Palmer sit out - all he's really done in the first half is misplace passes.

L2 standard is probably about right, but we're a L2 team out of their depth at best right now.

Watching the goal back, Missilou does absolutely lose his man and stands there looking a right lemon but it's not the guy who scores, that's Thompson's man.

[BambooToTheFuture]

Does anyone think this is what Guardiola sounds like if he was miked up?

What like a dour Lancashire twat?

Reminds me of Leigh Francis "outing" Gino D'acampo as a being from Leeds 

[Samdy Gray]

The one time we kept the ball on the floor and worked it into the box, Payne got a shot away.

Of all the times we lumped it forward for someone to get a knock-on, we haven't won a single ball.

[BambooToTheFuture]

You may be but we are all listening to the dulcet tones of a Northern Monkey Manager shouting at a bunch of kids who don't want to be playing for Swindon by the look of it.

Hey! Some of us "Northerners" have an "okay" voice