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Much, much better performance today - shape of the team, tempo and effort. Early goal obviously helped. Mozika looks a good player and I was impressed with McCallum - hope we can keep him longer than a month. Feel more confident that we can begin to move up the table. I hope so because we can no longer write off Accrington !!! Best referee we've had at Plainmoor this season.

I've been having a look around the Internet. It seems we can add Chesterfield and Mansfield to the list of teams who are absolutely guaranteed to go down. The Conference is going to be a busy division next year, what with 40 teams being in it...

Matt.

Agreed, Nico did his best, it wasn't his fault. He should not have been on the pitch, Portsmouth's attacks were one dimensional down the right wing from the start, they clearly had identified Nico as our weakness, Nico was 10 yrds off were he should have been every time the ball swung out to the wing, why, because he is to slow and knows it.

Cruise is a left back, when he played at left back against Cheltenham( a game we actually won) He added a complete new dimension to the team, Nico is indeed a club icon and will always be remembered as such, however it's time to look forward not back, Cruise must be given a run in the team now at left which is his what he, as a player, is.

Yesterday was a lot more encouraging, although obviously helped by the early goal. Some of our play was neat and tidy (just look at how we carved them open for McCallum to fire wide in the first half) that said we didn't really create a glut of chances to finish the game off, and whilst it was 1-0 you always felt the equaliser was on the horizon. What was pleasing though was the fact we didn't crumble and lose after the equaliser and saw the game out for what I felt was a fair and roundly deserved point. Felt we missed Bodin yesterday, as has been mentioned the match was less physical- it had a lovely end to end flow about it, I feel Billy would have revelled in it.

Pearce and O'Connor looked excellent at the back, and Tonge had his best game of the season, impressive going forward and back, one cross in early in the second half was world class. Mansell was excellent, he isn't the most creative, but his work-rate, desire and ability to sniff out the danger and get a foot in is invaluable. Hawley put in a selfless shift and probably has the bruises to show for it, his play with his back to goal is fantastic, he desperately needs a goal though. Mozika impressed when he came on, looks like a very powerful man, will be looking forward to see what he can deliver when he's up to speed.

All in all, more positives than negatives really. Individual performances are growing, and when all the pieces of the machine come together we have the makings of an effective unit. It is vital that we follow this progress up with a positive result at Gigg lane. We have yet to string two decent performances together this season and as I have said time and time again consistency is the key to success.

That performance was definitely what we've been hoping for since the start of the season. Whilst in the end a draw was a fair result we managed, for the first time this season, to put in an almost 90+ minutes rather than just one half.
O'Connor showed what a great signing and I hope there are discussions about keeping him all season. McCourt I would assume will make way for Harding's return. I would like to think Azeez and McCallum, fitness permitting, will also stay longer than the initial month.
Also which of them will not be cup-tied to play against Rochdale?

PlainmoorRoar wrote: Thought it was much better from our end today, glad the drummer turned up for us, it makes so much difference!!

Oh good, because the drummer was me

You did well Danny, atmosphere was better by a country mile yesterday, more of the same please.

well done dan,look forward to hearing you play it next home game. well done mate.

I would also like to thank you Danny. The drum is so important. The atmosphere was much better and we even managed to make more noise than the Pompey fans at times. Well done to everyone who joined in.

Thought the overall performance was much better, and McCallum looks a decent signing. He's great in the air, and Azeez is pretty handy too, but if we're going to play hoof ball, we need to play to their strengths - almost all of McCallum's flick-ons went harmlessly through to the keeper because there was no-one running onto them, and though Azeez won most of his aerial battles, he either headed it backwards or infield. Knill could also do with telling Azeez not to jump too early.

I was ready to suggest the decision to play Nicholson over Cruise was the wrong one but, surprisingly, he stood up pretty well to Pompey's winger in the first half. Sadly, though, he looked out of his depth in the second. Have to say Hawley was very good, had no right to win as many long balls as he did, and showed great control to bring down a couple of them.

McCallum reminds me of Tim Sills with all the flick ons

Get Benyon in, him and Sills made a great partnership

It's big man - little man. The personnel are largely irrelevant (although I certainly would support the return of Bennerz), just provided you've got one of each. Neither Tim nor EB are especially good footballers, but because of their combination play (which, as you say, would likely be rekindled should Benyon be selected to partner McCallum) they became vastly more than the sum of their parts.

Matt.

Highlights looked fine today, we did not look like a team 3rd from bottom.
Do like the way Chappell finishes, shoots early and makes it hard for the keeper - his finish reminded me of Gerhard Muller.
Onwards and upwards, this is a good platform to build from. Look out Bury

It may just be me now but whilst I did take some optimism from the performance, we still weren't that good in my opinion. Apart from the start of both halves, and the McCallum opportunity before half time, we didn't create anything. Infact, I can only recall their keeper making one save and that was from a speculative Mansell effort from 25 yards.

Again, the midfield were invisible for prolonged periods - this wasn't helped by McCourt's struggle to find a yellow shirt on several occasions. Azeez also struggled big time in my opinion, and I'd quite like to see him down the middle again. I'm getting very concerned about our lack of midfield, we haven't won the 'battle' all season in the middle of the park.

Positives were that with two proper centre halves in we looked strong - both Pearce and O'Connor did very well. Hopefully we can extend O'Connor's loan for the rest of the campaign. Hopefully Downes is back soon too and we can finally see where we're at with everyone available.

Hawley did well against the two big men in Pompeys defence, but he doesn't pose a goal threat in my opinion. In his hey-day for Carlisle he was a fantastic finisher, but he seems to have lost his ability or confidence there. Infact now I'd consider putting him in a slightly deeper role, perhaps in or just infront of the midfield duo. Whether that role fits into our tactics is a different story though.

Overall there were positives but there were also negatives. One final thing, credit to Danny for the drum, fingers crossed for more of the same too. If we can get a continuous 'yellow army' going for 10+ minutes then that'd be awesome, as sometimes it dies straight away!

Nick wrote:It may just be me now but whilst I did take some optimism from the performance, we still weren't that good in my opinion. Apart from the start of both halves, and the McCallum opportunity before half time, we didn't create anything. Infact, I can only recall their keeper making one save and that was from a speculative Mansell effort from 25 yards.

Again, the midfield were invisible for prolonged periods - this wasn't helped by McCourt's struggle to find a yellow shirt on several occasions. Azeez also struggled big time in my opinion, and I'd quite like to see him down the middle again. I'm getting very concerned about our lack of midfield, we haven't won the 'battle' all season in the middle of the park.

Positives were that with two proper centre halves in we looked strong - both Pearce and O'Connor did very well. Hopefully we can extend O'Connor's loan for the rest of the campaign. Hopefully Downes is back soon too and we can finally see where we're at with everyone available.

Hawley did well against the two big men in Pompeys defence, but he doesn't pose a goal threat in my opinion. In his hey-day for Carlisle he was a fantastic finisher, but he seems to have lost his ability or confidence there. Infact now I'd consider putting him in a slightly deeper role, perhaps in or just infront of the midfield duo. Whether that role fits into our tactics is a different story though.

Overall there were positives but there were also negatives. One final thing, credit to Danny for the drum, fingers crossed for more of the same too. If we can get a continuous 'yellow army' going for 10+ minutes then that'd be awesome, as sometimes it dies straight away!

Key point here Nick and a serious worry of mine. We scored 2 at Wycombe, one scored by Pearce but basically created p*ss all, we created p*ss all of any note at Burton, at Morecambe the same only rescued by a superb edge of the box strike by Hawley, we created nothing at Fleetwood. Northampton second half we created quite a bit but that is the exception to the rule in 5 games I have seen. If this is also happening at home on a fairly regular basis then we have to ask why given we have about 408 attacking players in the squad.