LINES FROM LONDON V PORTSMOUTH

Another three points and that’s all fine but we had plenty of chances to win by a larger margin and there was great relief as the whistle went that we’d managed to survive Portsmouth’s late rally.

BEFORE

After Wednesday's tremendous win I'm trying to keep my feet on the ground and not get carried away with dreams of a 5-0 win today. I've largely failed, though, as I still think we'll win comfortably. Portsmouth have improved recently, winning 4-0 last time out, and have dragged themselves out of the bottom three but their away form has been poor and if we play the same way we did against Sheffield United, I think we'll be too strong for them. I hope we'll try 4-4-2 again as it was great to see Mayenda and Isidor running at speed and forcing defenders into errors before finishing coolly. We also stayed firm at the back and withstood considerable pressure in the closing minutes. The players have had four days to rest so I imagine the starting eleven will be largely unchanged. Lang has scored nine goals for Pompey so far and will clearly be a man to watch. I’ll be at the match and my prediction is a 3-1 win for us.

I got the team-news on the bus on my way over to the stadium and saw that were no changes from Wednesday in our starting line-up. It was raining quite heavily as I took my seat at the centre of the East Stand around 2.30 and it didn’t look like it was going to stop in a hurry. I don’t know if someone new is selecting the pre-match music at the SoL these days but I’m sure I heard The Fall. Anyway, my friends’ match predictions were 2-0 and a surprising 0-2. There were several hundred Pompey fans present, despite stories about road blockages, and they were in good voice as the game kicked off. I hate ‘The Pompey Chimes’ as it sounds like a dirge.

THE MATCH

We started very promisingly with a swift break in the first minute and then a low cross from Mayenda on the right. It didn’t result in a scoring chance but it augured well. The Pompey fans were soon chanting, “Is this a library?” but there was plenty of noise from our fans right on seven minutes when we took the lead in a very similar vein to Wednesday night. Mayenda raced on to a pass in their half and fed Isidor who fired low past the goalie Schmid to put us ahead. Aouchiche had made a few mistakes, firing a free-kick well wide and hitting the first defender with an early corner but he soon found his feet and made a great contribution to the game. By fifteen minutes, the match had evened out a good deal and Pompey caused a bit of panic in our box following their first corner that ricocheted around alarmingly before being cleared. Next thing Towler cleared off the line from a free-kick and another goal didn’t feel too far away. Five minutes later Lang was down injured for a while but was able to continue. Aouchiche was causing problems down our left with his jinky runs into their box and Schmid in goal looked dodgy to me apart from putting a couple of goal-kicks into touch. Mind you, Patto wasn’t exempt from such mistakes.

Aouchiche had a couple of decent efforts on goal but in both cases Schmid managed to block quite comfortably. Not long after the half-hour mark there was a nervy moment at the back for us when Patto and O’Nien left the ball for each other before the latter booted it away before a Portsmouth attacker could take advantage. In the thirty-seventh minute their top scorer Lang had his first shot and on the basis of that I’d say he couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo. Obviously I’m wrong but I was delighted that his form had lapsed on that occasion. Just after that Murphy managed to battle through our defence and put in a shot that wasn’t far off the mark and that was a lot more worrying. Five minutes before the break Mayenda went down in their box but referee Thomas Bramall wasn’t having it. A couple of minutes later we had the ball in their net again but the flag was clearly up well before. Just before the break Mayenda went on one of his bursts and many thought that he’d scored but he’d hit the side-netting. It remained 1-0 at the break and I don’t think Portsmouth had had a shot on target. Still, that 1-0 lead was looking slender.

During the break Lee Howey came on to do the draw and I was pleased to hear that in addition to the popular Italian Mackems, the Dusseldorf Mackems were also in attendance.

Cirkin had been having a good work-out during the break and it was no surprise when he started the second-half in place of Alese, who was presumably injured. One aspect of our game that had been annoying me was all that farting about at the back between Patto and our defenders instead of clearing the ball quickly and in the forty-eighth we almost came unstuck when Portsmouth won the ball and they had a scoring chance, though luckily for us it went wide. Aouchiche took a corner on the left in the fifty-fourth and at first it looked like he’d duffed it but the ball went straight through the Pompey defenders, though none of our players could pounce on it. Soon afterwards Pompey fought back with a corner and a free-kick in a good spot but we coped with both. Towler got the first yellow-card of the game. Roberts started to run their defence ragged down the right and I could feel a goal coming before long. O’Nien was having a go on goal, though his accuracy left something to be desired. He did create a great chance for Isidor in the sixth-fifth but his effort went just wide.

As we entered the final quarter of the game I was getting nervous about that slender lead and in the seventy-second Patto was forced into making a rare save. Roberts then created a very good chance for Mayenda but his shot was blocked. We then won three corners in a row but we couldn’t get that ball in the net. I liked Mepham’s cool defensive style and he helped to calm things down as the tension increased. With ten minutes to go Aouchiche was substituted for Aleksic and he was loudly applauded, rightly so. O’Nien was still gunning for goal but Hume had a better effort in the eighty-fourth that Schmid saved.

Portsmouth soon made another couple of changes and our fans were getting decidedly edgy as the full-time whistle approached and we were starting to get pressed back more and more. Four minutes of added-time were announced during which Portsmouth were awarded a free-kick that thankfully went wide. Mayenda was subbed by Rusyn, maybe just so he could take a bow, and there was a lot of whistling from our fans before Mr Bramall finally blew his own whistle to calm us all down.