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.

Movement at Fratton at last

Some comings and goings at Fratton Park at last to report on. If the rumours are anything to go by there will be another 1001 signings before the start of the season, but we all know it for what it is - gossip - so Ill leave all that for interfering old women.
And so, Pompey sign Glen Johnson and show Brian Priske the door; effectively a straight swap, though I dare say that Johnson is the better player. Onto the coaching team comes Tony Adams - hmmm, never really been a fan of his - he's come across in the past as a bit distractable and, errr... fick. Prove me wrong Tony.
In case anyone missed it last week D'Allessandro has surprisingly managed to secure an even fatter salary elsewhere - and to anyone who think that shows a lack of ambition by Pompey GET OVER IT - though he's a great player there's plenty more talented, more committed right wingers at that money than D'Allessandro - Id rather have a Steve Stone in that position any day.
And in other news - the playuppompey fan forum has a new temp home; http://s7.invisionfree.com/Play_Up_Pompey/index.php.

What's happened to playuppompey.org.uk?

If you havent used the forum playuppompey.org/forum , Id like to recommend it. At least I would if the site existed anymore, but it seems to have suddenly sunk without a trace, here one day gone the next. Hopefully it will return soon - can anyone shed any light on its whereabouts??????

Did Pompeys season leave us in good shape for 2006/2007?

Continued from Tuesdays - 'Was it a good or bad year for Pompey?'
Part 3; Did Pompeys season leave us in good shape for 2006/2007(or are we on a downward spiral?)

In February it looked as if everything would come crashing down on Pompey. We had abandoned our long-term vision for the short-term goal of Premiership survival, but this too seemed to be failing. We had gambled £10 million on new players, none of which had hit the ground running, and few of which would want to be around for the seemingly inevitable Championship football. We were facing needing a new manager and a major rebuild of the side for the third time in a year, and we all knew that this further instability would cause serious longterm damage to Portsmouth Football Club.
Happily from the depths of despair, the seeds that were sown in the January transfer window suddenly took root. Not only did they enable us to achieve Premiership survival, but they have given the club a strong base on which to build. Redknapps January spending not only achieved the short-term survival goal, but contributed towards longer-term aims aswell, for which the club must get credit. It would have been easy to buy a team of expendable relegation battlers, but instead Pompey took the risk of rebuilding the side with players that could achieve survival and also provide the quality to take us to the next level. A very canny gamble indeed. The consistency of good football in Pompeys last 10 games gives great promise for the 2006/2007 season. We have the nucleus of a very good side, one that will benefit from their familiarity with eachother and the absence of a need for major changes to the team personnel this preseason.
So despite this turbulent season and against all the odds, assuming there will be a few key additions to the squad, I feel that we will enter next season in better shape than any of our previous 3 seasons in the Premiership.

Did Pompey achieve their pre-season aims?

Continued from yesterdays - 'Was it a good or bad year for Pompey?'
Part 2; Did Pompey achieve their pre-season aims? In a word, no. At the onset Pompey seemed to be aiming to introduce a fresh forward-looking way of running the club, and to consolidate our place in the Premiership. A new structure at the club gave manager Alain Perrin greater responsibility for coaching and picking the side, and less influence on the recruitment of new players. The success of this 'vision' depended on our young foreign manager establishing an adaptable, more tactically advanced team capable of producing stable results, and his introduction of a European-style ‘modern’ approach to personal discipline, training, diet, conduct etc. The plan failed miserably – maybe Alain Perrin couldn't produce results quickly enough, maybe the club didn’t back him as well as it could. The players rebelled, as did an increasing section of the fan-base who had paid a lot of money for their season tickets only to endure half a season of very dire, sterile football, a lack of ambition and a general lack of results or even goals, to provide any optimism at all.
Harry was bought in to do a short-term rescue job by any means necessary, without regard to the Perrin-era long-term vision, and he achieved this fantastically.
But the bottom line is that this season, despite Harrys wonderful achievement of ensuring Premiership survival, Pompey did not achieve the pre-season aims. Infact the pre-season 'vision' now seems to have been discarded and no longer seen as the best way to progress Portsmouth Football Club.
Tomorrow; Did Pompeys season leave us in good shape for 2006/2007?