Pompey 2 Middlesborough 1

Relief all round that Pompey managed to get the 3 points. Despite dominating Boro, against the run of play Pompey fell a goal behind and Ive witnessed many a weekend ruined by that once-familiar storyline. However this seasons squad has been built with maximum flexibility at the forefront of the thinking, as Neville Dalton on Fratton Faithful observes. And this paid dividends when a bit of halftime tactical jiggery pokery by Harry provided the platform for Pompey to twice breach Middlesboroughs resilient defence for a well deserved victory (despite what Southgate might spin it to seem).
Pompeyrama’s view is here, Boromania’s is here, and a possibly impartial Setanta view with full match-stats is here.

Pompey V Boro Preview

Submitted by Pompeyboy @ Pompeyrama
Middlesbrough return to Fratton on Saturday, where hopefully they will find a very different Pompey side they managed to beat 1-0 last time. We also lost 2-0 at their place, thanks mainly to Pompey being in Wembley mode at the tail end of last season.
The Blues haven't scored against Boro since the fantastic 4-0 away win from August 2006, this time they will face the threat of the new strike force and probably the new 3-5-2. They will however be travelling south high in confidence, having made a good start this year; beating Spurs and Stoke with a reverse at Liverpool to bag 6 points.
Nadir Belhadj is expected to make his debut after starring for Algeria in his country's 3-2 win over Senegal last weekend. David James, Glen Johnson, Jermain Defoe, Lassana Diarra, Hermann Hreidarsson, Younes Kaboul and Ben Sahar have also all been away on international duty this week.
I'm predicting the first Fratton win of the season, score: 2-0. Pompeyboy @ Pompeyrama

Personally, whilst not wanting to go overboard after our last win, Middlesborough are a bit ordinary, and we do owe them, so Ill go for 3-0. For a decent Boro perspective preview try Boromania. HSBGuzzler

Heavens Light Our Guide is back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two years have passed since this site last submitted any new articles, and taking a glance at those 2006 postings shows how much Pompey have progressed in that time, not that we need reminding.
The motivation for writing for this site in this period of Pompey success has been strangely less for me than when we were up against it. Maybe thats true of actually supporting the club aswell, certainly for a generation or 3 of us who stuck with Pompey out of sympathy, a bloodyminded enjoyment of being the underdog and a hatred of glory-hunters, and who find this sudden success a bit alien. Of those, many are still not sure if it feels comfortable to be supporting one of the best teams in the country, a team that brings home silverware, and regularly beats the clubs with fans that have in the past laughed at us, lorded it over us, and condescended to us on the rare occasions they actually remembered we existed.
But actually it is lovely, especially to be shoving it up the arses of the plastic fans of those clubs who attract all the glory hunters, and seeing them bamboozled in the face of a proper football club with proper football history and tradition playing proper good football in front of proper football fans with proper passion. Long may it continue. Now that Im starting to get my head around the idea of us being good, hopefully this site will see some more articles at last, motivated now by the joy of being a Pompey fan rather than the anger. Play up Pompey.

Spurs 2 Pompey 1 - Jols smugly philosophical

Its easy to be philosophical when an injustice has just gone your way and won you the game.
Martin Jols reaction to the incorrect penalty decision that cost Pompey the game was; ‘You win some you lose some’.
Cheers for your support and your sympathy Jol, we’ll remind you of those smug words next time you have a bleat, and hopefully shove them right back frrom where they came.
For the second season in succession a refereeing mistake has lost us the match at White Hart Lane. Highly irritating, especially when Spurs looked so ordinary and undeserving of their win, except in the eyes of their blinkered fans. Personally if I was them I would be embarassed rather than smug, but maybe thats why we dont like Spurs and their ilk.

Man City 0 Pompey 0: Is Dermot on his final public warning?

Man City 0 Pompey 0
Could well have been 3 points for Pompey had Irish ref Dermot Gallagher not made 2 massive errors.
Missing a blatant City handball in the penalty area was bad enough, but that poor decision was nothing compared with his earlier failure to send off Ben Thatcher after he’d knocked Mendes out cold with a running fore-arm smash that Rollerball Rocco would have been proud of (though surely have been disqualified for).
Gallagher was due for retirement last season, and apparently has only been kept on due to the lack of quality refs coming through the ranks. If this is the best they can come up with then the mind boggles at how shit the rest must be. And what about the 4th official? And the third and the second come to that. What a waste of space they are, if they couldn’t influence the terrible decision to let Thatcher remain on the pitch.
Harry is quite rightly calling for a punishment for Thatcher, but ridiculously it seems this is not straightforward or guaranteed to be successful.
Browsing the net, I stumbled upon a 2001 Dermot Gallagher demotion article. In that instance it was Man Utd that were the team wronged by Gallaghers refusal to send someone off, and we all know there’s 1 rule for Man Utd and one rule for the rest. Will the FA prove this once again, or will they show some consistency and consign him to the referees room 101?

Shearer prefers Zidane

‘Zidane is the definitely the best player Ive ever played against’ Alan Shearer admitted during last nights World Cup match between France and Portugal. Whilst Id agree that Zidanes talent is colossal, I think Shearer is in danger of putting someones nose out a bit, unless he has forgotten the occasion only a year ago, 19th of March 2005, Newcastle v Pompey, when Shearer was fortunate enough to share the pitch with the awesome talent of Giannis Skopelitis. Show some respect.
In other news it appears that the original handwritten resignation speech by David Beckham has been unearthed (see photo). Certainly looks authentic.

The England manager job: Marry in haste, repent at leisure

Now Phil Scolari has indicated that he would be prepared to listen to future offers from the English FA, it raises the question of just why did the FA rush the decision to appoint nobodys favourite, Steve McClaren, as the next England manager?
Scolari was the FA’s number one choice, a man in a different league in terms of class, experience and success than McClaren. He is also evidently a man of integrity, refusing to promise himself to England before the World Cup as it could have (and would have) undermined the fortunes of his current employer, Portugal.The English FA don’t seem to have understood his integrity. Maybe it is an alien concept to them, maybe they have become too used to dealing with people without any integrity, maybe it is something they themselves lack. With an indecent haste in April they instead appointed Steve McClaren, a man who we could have judged much more thoroughly after this World Cup. As it is now, we can see he has been a fundamental part of an England management regime that has repeatedly failed to record any level of success with arguably the most talented group of English footballers in a couple of generations. England are ready for a fresh direction, a new beginning. Instead we are left with the legacy of an inexplicably rushed decision by the FA to award a multi-million pound contract to a man who promises to do little more than deliver more of the same.