Portsmouth. That means John Westwood, better known as Mr. Pompey. He seems to be a bit of a “marmite” person, some Portsmouth fans love him, some hate him! He has been banned from a couple of grounds for bad behaviour, which is not what you expect to hear about a bookshop owner. He is certainly one of footballs “characters”! And then there is the ringing of the cowbells. No idea why!
Portsmouth have been on a great run since the Cowleys were sacked, so expectations from U’s fans were more “how many will we lose by” rather than could we get a point!
Not enough programmes had been ordered, so I had sold out by 2:40pm which meant I had time for a beer in the NRE fan zone before the game started. A win would mean adding it to my pre-match ritual!
U’s started the game with the same team of Mitov in goal, Morrison, R. Bennett, Jones flanked by L Bennett and Brophy. Digby, Lankester and McGrandles in the middle, Ironside and Smith up front. Apparently the 5th game in a row for this line-up. Would it be an “Exeter” performance, or a “Fleetwood” performance? It turned out to be the latter, and with the same result.
U’s pushed forward from the start, winning the first corner on 6 minutes which was cleared. Brophy was still under instructions to always go forward, and following a good run to the side of their penalty area his cross found L Bennett but his header went just wide of the far post. A few minutes later another U’s corner went to Morrison but his header just cleared the bar.
The referee was not making home fans happy by allowing Pompey to get away with blatant pushing, Jones is pretty hard to push over but they managed it without conceding a free kick! Then Lankester was booked on 35 minutes for a pretty tame foul!
Another good cross from Brophy allowed McGrandles to shoot just wide.
Best chance of the half came with a through ball to set Smith free, he rolled the ball past the advancing keeper but it missed the open goal and went past the far post.
Just before half time there was quite a melee near the U’s goal. About the only attack of the half by Pompey saw the ball picked up by Mitov which was followed by much pushing and shoving for some reason out of my view. Dale of Portsmouth was booked
Half time: 0-0.
Second half started much as the first with U’s on the attack, Ironside trying to repeat his goal at Newcastle with a shot on the turn but straight to their keeper. Soon after L Bennett cut in from the right and unleashed a shot that just grazed the corner of bar and post.
On 50 minutes Pompey got their first corner of the match which was defended well.
Another good cross from L Bennett and Smith headed to the keeper.
Pompey had their first shot at goal on 64 minutes, well blocked by Mitov before being cleared for a corner. Portsmouth took it short, played across the edge of our penalty area before crossing to the back post for a simple header by Bishop past Mitov. 0-1.
Smith did get the ball in the Portsmouth net but was flagged offside.
O’Neil came on for Lankester on 67 minutes.
Another good low cross from Brophy went across the 6 yard box with no-one able to get a touch, then a u’s free kick was headed wide
As usual ironside was getting nothing from the referee, even when blatantly pulled down the referee let play go on!
More U’s pressure with a couple of quick corners resulted in a handball in the penalty area, and as if you didn’t know, the referee saw nothing.
Brophy and Digby made way for Tracey and Seddon on 76 minutes.
Another Smith header went to the keeper, Seddon had a shot deflected for a corner, then Smith hit an absolute piledriver that looked goal bound until it hit Tracey in the face which caused a stoppage for a head injury.
In added time O’Neil dinked the ball over the defence for Smith to run onto, but he mistimed his shot as the ball dropped over his shoulder on the corner of the 6 yard box and it went out for a goal kick.
Full time: 0-1.
The final whistle saw applause from the U’s fans. I guess those that booed in the past had kept to their promise of “I’m not wasting my money on this shit” and did not see what I thought was a very good performance from our team. Portsmouth had no shots in the first half and ended the game with 5 of which 3 were on target. U’s had 17 with 4 on target. Unfortunately it is goals that count! Earlier in the season we struggled against teams that defend, this time we made them defend because we were attacking so well. Our position in the league has not changed, and it is looking like 4 out of 8 will go down.
I find it annoying that our strikers are so berated on social media, and are blamed for our current predicament, it is “their job to score goals”!. Those same players did pretty well the last 2 seasons! Harry Kane’s job is to score goals, he missed a penalty at the world cup! Even Messi sometimes misses a good chance, so why some fans think a League 1 player should never miss is beyond me!
The pre-match beer turned out not to be “the thing to make us win”.
The recent run seems to be “good game, bad game”, Fleetwood good, Exeter bad, Portsmouth good. So I’m not expecting much against Morecambe on Tuesday evening! But maybe at MK Dons next Saturday we might not lose! Those teams are just above us in the league, if we don’t get at least 4 points I think we know where we will finish at the end of the season.
But I live in hope.
Terry