Pompey 2 Sunderland 1 – Super Matt saves the day

For me that match summed up why football is the greatest show on Earth. A total rollercoaster of a match, culminating in an absorbing last 20 minutes when even the most impartial of spectators would have found it hard to keep their heartbeats down to a safe level. No concerts, not Shakespeare, not opera, not any theatre could compete with just how emotionally involving that match was. Totally exhausting, and topped off with that unbelievable climax of a moment; the crowd, intimidatingly loud in vocal support, almost erupting at the penalty award in the dying minutes of the match. Taylor kept a cool head and sent us all into a delirium that 20 minutes earlier had not seemed possible. These are the moments football fans live for and they don’t come round too often.
All other events in the match were instantly meaningless after that moment, but reflecting upon them in the cold light of day, I think it is fair to say that Pompey were not firing on all cylinders and were sorely missing the spark of Mendes and Lua Lua. Toddy showed great composure though allowing him to score a belter. And of Benjani? More fantastic touches, but again he looks like he couldn’t score in Joanna’s – a Teddy Sheringham type player without the goals. Still, we’re looking good being 2 points in front of our rivals with 2 games to go - any more twists in the script and it will start getting too unbelievable.

Back in the bottom 3 - Brum leapfrog Pompey

Don’t panic Captain Mainwaring! The last few days has seen Pompey fall to our first defeat in 6 weeks and Brum bag a lucky win over Blackburn, and its been enough to set the doommeisters all a flutter again.
Im calm. I really dont think we will go down. Its still in our hands and we have an opportunity to better our goal difference on Saturday against Sunderland. After the good football we have shown in the last 6 weeks, we are still favourites to avoid the drop.
Another reason for remaining calm is that after the spirit we have recently shown, relegation would not neccessarily be a colossal disaster nor threaten the future existence of the club. We have regained our self-respect, respect for our owners and our manager, and no-longer look like a shambles of a club that is about to freefall through the divisions (unlike scum). Before Harry's run of great results things were looking very dark and more upheaval seemed inevitable. Now there is unity and direction at Pompey, we’re capable of producing great football again and we’re no longer a laughing stock. As long as we’ve got those things relegation would not have me slitting my wrists. Its all very tight and luck can play a big part at this stage, but the smart money is on us, and either way I think we'll be OK now.

Pompey still in the driving seat despite Charlton blip

Charlton 2 Pompey 1; Well, the run had to end sooner or later. Maybe it is better to have lost having pretty much controlled the match, than to have lost having been outplayed for 90 minutes, so we shouldn’t get too downhearted, though we did let the 3 points slip away as both Kiely and Redknapp agree. Our defence is pretty rocky to say the least and the fact that it got us through the previous 6 matches unbeaten is testament to the great work done by the midfield and attack in scoring more than we let in. But with Lua Lua and Mendes out, other players playing with knocks, fatigue and bad form, and the defence further weakened by the loss of Stef and AOB, it is no small wonder that we would struggle to cover all the cracks this time. With some of our key players back and refreshed on next Saturday, ready for the final push towards safety, I see absolutely no reason why we should worry about yesterdays blip. Let punchless West Brom or the shambles that is Brum do the worrying. Nice to see Bruce getting his excuses in early.

Pompeys resurrection nearly complete

Pompey 1 Middlesborough 0 and another massive 3 points for Pompey. Not the most exciting of performances, but we just about deserved the win. Happy days at Fratton Park are back – there was even a positive song for Benjani. The last 5 minutes was a bit fraught though and seemed to be played in slow motion. The anxious crowd made a terrific noise to try to lift our tired team and ensure we continued our storming run – Bruce at Brum is knocked for 6.
So now we look to complete a happy Easter with a trip to Chalton – a point would go along way for us, and 3 would seriously demoralise our sorry-looking relegation rivals.

Portsmouth 1 Arsenal 1 - Honours even

One team is supposedly heading for Championship football whilst the other is gunning for the Champions League European Cup, but there wasnt much to choose between the sides in a gutsy battle. Another passionate performance from Pompey saw the unbeaten run extend to 5 matches. Ultimately Arsenal could have nicked all 3 points if their finishing wasn’t so woeful, but it would have been an injustice to Pompey. Wengers comment that they should have won by 5 goals is a bit wide of the mark – either side could have nicked it. The Arsenal goal was a fantastic affair, made and finished by currently the best player in the world, Thierry Henry, after Sean Davis was caught in possession. But Pompey’s magician, Lua Lua, is also in redhot form at the moment and he grabbed a great goal with a bullet header. Who knows, he may have gone on to get the winner if he hadn’t had to go off injured as result of his somersaulting goal celebrations, but thats Lua Lua all over, awesome one moment, frustrating the next. On the positive side, sounds like he might be fit for the weekend, and if not then we have another redhot striker in Todorov to take his place in the starting 11. Toddy seemed well up for it when he came on as substitute, and theres always a feeling when he’s around that a goal is about to come – this time it took 10 seconds, the only surprise was that he didn’t score it himself. The man keeping him out the side, Benjani, is a different sort of player, though he did start to bring some influence to the side; his strong challenges and incisive passing caused plenty of disquiet in the Arsenal defence, and Campbell had far from the comfortable, international-class performance that the BBC imply (maybe they are Campbell fans?). I thought Primus was more deserving of credit.
Harry was well pleased to keep the unbeaten run going, but he knows there’s plenty of work to do – we are still in the relegation zone after all.

Pompey 2 Blackburn 2 - The verdict

Overall there's plenty to be happy about with the way things are progressing with Harry Redknapp at the helm. True we could of and should have had all 3 points, but didnt get that little bit of luck our performance deserved. At least it feels like we are watching Pompey again, not some sterile, spiritless club managed by someone bent on entering into Premiership games with European tactics (mentioning no names). The passion is back - the defence might not look so tight, but the bottom line is that certainly look like scoring more than we concede.
Its hard to criticise when our manager has produced such a turnaround in results, but I really do think Harry should let Todorov have his chance - Toddy knows he's earned it, and being left on the bench must be starting to feel like a snub when the player in his place isnt having as much impact in front of goal (thats putting it politely).
Other points to mention - I have regained alot of respect for Craig Bellamy, the player not the man, though my zero respect for Mark Hughes remains so after his pathetic comment that he feels 'hard done by that we didnt win'.

Davis happy as yellow Brown sees a red

Fulhams Brown showed just how yellow he is with a shocking lunge at Davis, and the man in black had no choice but to show him a red. Now our Davis is no shrinking violet but if he’d had he foot on the green he could well have broken his leg, and ended up in a white flashing van. Anyway, Davis was obviously tickled pink with Pompeys win over Fulham, as he treated his Blues teammates to a meal.
Davis’s true opinion of Brown no doubt uses much more colourful language than his comments reported in the media.


Meanwhile Portsmouth look to secure the services of both Harry Redknapp and Amdy Faye for next season, déjà vu, and Frenchman Vignal raises his white flag.

Pompeys purple patch continues

Fulham 1 Pompey 3. What more could a Pompey fan ask for? Three goals away from home, another 3 points and Pompeys 3rd win on the trot. Sky report ‘Brilliant Pompey Cruise past Fulham’.
The feel-good factor is back, and that extends to our complex relationship with Harry Redknapp. Seems today was the day when even those that had found it difficult to forgive Harry finally warmed to him. He rejoined Pompey at enormous risk to his reputation within football, but if he can keep us on course to avoid relegation then he will emerge with his reputation miraculously intact, and in the case of how we see it in Pompey, his reputation miraculously rebuilt.
Meanwhile West Brom crashed to a home defeat and Brum got only a point, so premiership survival really is now in our own hands.