Chin up, there are many reasons to be happy | Vital Football

Chin up, there are many reasons to be happy

Pompeytim

Vital 1st Team Regular
Coming straight after my 3rd play-off disappointment (Leicester, Plymouth & now Sunderland) it is easy to feel a bit gloomy. Asking 'where did it all go wrong?'

However, I'd like to add a little positivity to the discussion.

1. At the outset of the season a spot in the play-offs would have been considered a success. We made the play-offs & weren't that far from automatic promotion. Yeah, I get the 'what could have been' bit, but at the start of the season we would have taken this. That needs to be remembered.

2. We had one of the 'great Pompey days' with our trip to Wembley & winning the Checkatrade. I don't care what anyone says, it is days like that that you remember as a football fan. When I think back on my time as a Pompey fan, and the 1,000+ plus matches I have seen, I will never forget that day. It was wonderful.

3. We have seen some young players blossom this year, in particular Ben Close. I know he gets stick from a section of the support, but I think he has really started to develop. It is great when an academy product blooms.

4. There has been more progress off the pitch. For all the years we were in the Premier League, with millions swilling around, woefully little was done to the ground. This year alone the leaking South Stand roof has been addressed, we now have an amazing big screen and there are plans for more improvements. This doesn't even include us linking up with Nike and various other tidy ups that have happened.

5. We are still developing & going forward. Each year we are incrementally improving on our prior year league position. We were at the bottom of L2 not that long ago. It feels like this is a club on the march. It didn't happen this year but I feel there is a sense of inevitability about our eventual return to the Championship now.

6. So we are in L1 again next year. Ok, we'd have liked the Championship, but given that we are still in L1 we can hope for another crack at top 6, which means winning more games than we lose. Next season in the Championship would have been about survival. That may sound like a lack of ambition, but being a big fish in L1, winning games & sitting near the top of the division isn't all that bad.

So there you go Pompey fans. There are reasons to be cheerful. It has been a good season. Next season should be good too.
 
Brilliant post Tim.. many thanks for that.. its very uplifting..

I must admit to being a bit deflated after the game, frustrated too. However, you make some excellent points that I for one have taken note of and digested.

You are right in saying that at the beginning of the season, to think that we'd make the playoff's would have been most certainly something to put a smile on your face. Looking back now I do think we've had quite a successful season really, seeing it was our first in League 1. Especially when you compare us to Plymouth Albion.

As you say.. In this league we 'are' still quite a big fish, and all things being equal we should be able to maintain a healthy position in the table while building for our return to the Championship, which I do believe will happen. Fighting for survival next season and maybe even a relegation would not have done our moral and steady forward approach any good whatsoever.

So yes, this season is over. Another season will soon be upon us though, with all the usual gambit of emotions that will bring. I'm looking forward to it already.. and yes I am 'cheerful'.. :thumbup::grinning:
 
As you say.. In this league we 'are' still quite a big fish, and all things being equal we should be able to maintain a healthy position in the table while building for our return to the Championship, which I do believe will happen. Fighting for survival next season and maybe even a relegation would not have done our moral and steady forward approach any good whatsoever.
To add to that, The great and sorely missed Thompson who returned to Millwall only just escaped the relegation zone so how would we have coped.
 
I’m over the disappointment now and really looking forward to next season.
We’re going to lose a few players, Lowe, Clarke and possibly McGillivray, so hopefully Kenny’s scouts will be busy this summer.
 
I’m over the disappointment now and really looking forward to next season.
We’re going to lose a few players, Lowe, Clarke and possibly McGillivray, so hopefully Kenny’s scouts will be busy this summer.

I'm probably unrealistically hoping we won't lose them. I haven't got a clue how their contracts are scheduled though. Its always such a shame when you lose good players because you didn't get promoted. Especially this team. Just a couple of good additions and I think they'd definitely be ready for the Championship.. hey ho..
 
I'm mentally prepared for losing a good few this summer.
However, players come & go. We have thought so many times in the past that the world had come to an end because X or Y has left the club. However, we're still here, still alive & kicking.
We won't be able to find an immediate replacement for Clarke. However, everyone will be replaceable either individually or in the aggregate. If we get a decent replacement for Clarke & for Thompson at right back, with McGillivray (who I think will stay) improving after another season, Brown improving & even Burgess, then on the whole, the back 5 should be decent.
The number 10 & / or creative midfielder role has been a gaping hole since Ben Thompson left. If we can really fill that with someone exciting, we could even look better, despite the lost players.
 
Totally agree, was a really good post and very true.

Yes, we'll lose some of our top talents, but as long as we reinvest that wisely we have the basis to build and move forward some more. Clarke will be a big miss, but we 'should' get big money for him and will hopefully insert our own sell-on/bonus clauses in a deal that sees him move on.

Thompson was a massive loss, if we can find a player in his mould, who we really missed when he returned to Millwall, that could be the difference between top two and being third-sixth, which I too would take.

Lowe will probably go too. Personally, much as I have rated him. Think his head was turned in January and his mind has been set on the Championship with or without Pompey and he probably knew he would head that way regardless and this saw him tail off. Pershaps I'm being unfair and he's simply burnt himself out with all the games played and part he did play?
 
Clarke, Thompson, and Lowe. and if all three go which is odds on to happen, it will leave a hole, of that there is no doubt.

Its probably an odd thing to say but I think I was secretly hoping we'd attain promotion to solidify the team we have now. Add to it instead of dismantle it. However, that's football, and no amount of whinging from me will change anything.

Not so sure you're right about Lowe though Rug, I tend to think it was a bit of burn out, and form dipped because of it.

Onward and upward though, nothing stays the same.. and as Tim says.. "Chin up, there are many reasons to be cheerful".. :thumbup: