Monday Morning
Well, the heat should be off after the weekend’s results went very well for us but knowing our team as we do, no doubt events will conspire to keep the pressure up till the last minute of next Sunday’s matches and we’ll all be sweating as we watch Chelsea give us a good hiding and wait for a late Villa equalizer. Portsmouth are safe and though this isn’t supposed to make a difference to professionals, I’m sure it must do to a slight but maybe crucial degree. A lot of reports about the Bolton match called it a bore draw but they must’ve been at a different game to me and everyone around me. If we can reproduce that form, we could manage another draw tonight but I really hope they’ve had a few barn doors on the training ground during the last week. A little lad next to me pointed out that Kenwyne didn’t even get the ball in the net during last week’s warm-up.

As usual various fantasy versions of tonight’s game are running in my mind’s moviedrome and these include Djib and Kenwyne banging in a couple of goals each and re-establishing their futures with us. We all know that Crouch is a big threat (I wish we’d signed him last summer) and if, God forbid, we have another West Brom performance, I dread to think how many he’ll score tonight. I’m off to work in a while and my Sunderland shirt and bow-tie are packed and ready for a quick change in a nearby phone-booth.

The Match
I had a quick Strongbow in the buffet at Waterloo and caught a packed train down to Fratton chatting to some very friendly Pompey fans on the way. They mentioned that half of their team had their contracts up soon and would be playing to impress and that wasn’t good news. I got to the vicinity of the ground around 7.15 but as it was proving too hard to get served in the Shepherd’s Crook I adjourned to a nearby Tescos, where the friendly staff opened my large bottle of Beck’s which I consumed outside while dining on peanuts and a banana. I got chatting to a lad from Monkwearmouth who remembered what he called ‘the two old grannies’ who ran the Howard Arms for years and I was glad someone else remembered them. I was in the ground five minutes before kick-off and a man dressed in full Arab dress was rolling down the concrete aisle in between embracing a steward while a large inflatable banana was being swatted overhead. We were fielding the same side as at Bolton and spirits were high in our end but there was a lot of steward intervention to try and get people to sit down. If you’re going to get fans to sit, surely it makes sense to make those at the front sit down first.

I think we shaded the first-half though how we weren’t one down within five minutes I don’t know as Crouch’s header hit the post and strolled along the line before being cleared. Kenwyne hit the post at the other end with a better header five minutes before the break. We were displaying the same tenacity we’d shown at Bolton and our fans were responding in kind. Davenport made a lot of good headed clearances and I think he’s worth hanging on to. As a fellow traveller on the last train back to Waterloo has just quipped, “He should do well in the Championship.” Our lot gave the team a good ripple as the whistle went.

Portsmouth started strongly in the second half and dominated the first quarter of an hour while Malbranque, who’d impressed me with his strong runs, had to be replaced by Edwards ten minutes in. Suddenly we were in the lead when Davenport made a great storming run down the right and his cross was met by Kenwyne, who stabbed it home by the left post. Cue tremendous celebrations in our end with much surging in the aisles and the odd shirt being ripped off. I was waiting for the goal to be replayed on the big screen and I suspect our defence were too as almost straightaway Pompey were level with Utaka, who’d looked their most dangerous player, getting the goal. Not long afterwards we were 2-1 down after a terrible mistake by Ferdinand allowed Utaka again to pressurize and Bardo put it into his own net. Fair dues to the Lads, they battled back and for any neutrals present it must have been an enthralling tussle. We were actually getting a few shots on target, but a lot more were going wide with Richardson again being the main culprit. With about ten minutes left Cisse came on for Tainio and five minutes after that Murphy was on for Leadbitter, who had again been my man of the match. A couple of minutes later though, many of our end were on their way home after Portsmouth put the result beyond question with a goal from a very wide angle that I thought Fulop should’ve had.

So, it’ll be end of the season business as usual on Sunday then but although I think we’ll lose, surely both Hull and the Mags can’t pull off shock away wins? Come on, back me up, somebody… anybody?

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