Notts County (H) | Vital Football

Notts County (H)

PompeyFrippy

PompeyFrippy

Vital 1st Team Regular
The oldest club in the world prepare this weekend to make the 390 mile round trip to the South Coast as we open the gates of Fratton for the first time in 3 weeks. John Sheridan's men currently sit 12th having only picked up 1 point in October so far.

October on paper was a tricky month, and started badly with a pinch and a punch from Doncaster. I feared the worst going into a run of away games given our woeful form on the road, but 4 points (which was so nearly 6) from Orient and Plymouth mean we are still within spitting distance of the automatic places.

Cookie only made one (enforced) change with Davies replacing Clarke for the Plymouth match. Bennett will certainly retain his place after a blistering performance and Linganzi certainly impressed in the position vacated by Rose. Unless Clarke is ready to go again, I would imagine the team is unchanged.

The important team news from the Notts County camp is that League 2 Top Scorer Jon Stead will not feature because of an ankle injury sustained against Crewe last week.

The Magpies have a few new familiar faces in their ranks. Richard Duffy (joined from Eastleigh in the Summer) was with us for most of our top flight tenure, but was limited to mostly cup games as he was repeatedly loaned out. Also Carl Dickinson, the ex-Stoke man who spent two spells at Fratton Park, is on the books for County after leaving Port Vale in the Summer,

There are a few more faces you may recognise, including player/coach/love-rat Alan Smith who will be fondly remembered for his time in Leeds, Manchester United and that bird off the X-Factor. If Smith doesn't start, the other target for abuse would be Jonathan Forte who is having his 4th spell with the Magpies, and has spent several years with that lot down the road.

Personally, I think we have the beating of these lads. Doncaster aside our home form has been great and we have been scoring for fun. The players will be well rested and hopefully full of confidence after 2 decent away results.

My prediction is a 3-1 win with Chaplin grabbing a brace and Baker with the other.

Play Up Pompey!
 
Absolutely FUMING. We played some brilliant football first half but the second half was atrocious. What happened? Went from being quick and incisive, to slow and ponderous. A game we really needed to take three points in to back up some good away displays and we bloody lose. Don't you just know it...

Should have been so far out of sight by half time. Despite scoring, Chaplin missed two absolute sitters, and if anyone else had done so they would have been slaughtered - so he must take a portion of blame. Baker was also guilty of wasting many good opportunities - he missed the ball more than he made a connection with it!

Again though, our defence was proved to be an absolute shambles. Burgess had another mare and needs to be dropped next game IMO to prove that he can't be guaranteed a position even after making multiple mistakes. Likewise, Davies was caught out too often. Evans was targeted and just isn't a defender so we desperately need Talbot back in to give us some stability. Forget going forwards, we need to get the basics right. And Naismith was plain dreadful too. Couldn't beat the first man from any one of his several crosses. Thought Stevens did well before his injury and hope nothing serious has happened to him.

Doyle put in a shift and saved us from going further behind late on, while Linganzi was good in possession, yet neither gave us anything going forwards. I think Rose adds more in this department and probably would have suited this game better. Bennett played well first half and Roberts created the goal yet neither contributed in the second half. Lalkovic and Main had no impact and Pompey resorted to chucking Burgess up top for the final minutes.

We're dangerous in attack and obviously play some good stuff but we're still not ruthless enough, even with Chaplin playing. Defence is a joke and something needs to be changed there. Everyone was talking about Ben Davies but it seems that the absence of Adam Webster is hurting us even more. He's now playing regular football in the Championship so that shows you how lucky we were to have him last year and what a fantastic player he is.

Just where do we go from here?

(Didn't expect to be writing so much these days but just got caught in the moment! Onto Cambridge, I suppose...)
 
I thought the Doncaster debacle was the pits, but yesterday's second half managed to eclipse that. How many soft goals are we going to concede? What is the matter with the bloody defence. Notts County offered f*ck all and we contrived to beat ourselves and gift wrap 3 points for them. How I long to see an effective, orthodox winger in a Pompey shirt tearing down the touch line instead of more crab like football. How I long to see a leader who inspires and motivates his team on the pitch. We have only one quality striker on the books so if he ever had an off day, it leaves us glaringly short up front (two of the others couldn't his a bull's arse with a banjo and Hunt cannot get a game). I try my hardest to remain positive, after all it is only October, but, hand on heart, at the moment, I cannot see any evidence on the pitch that promotion is our destiny at the end of the season. Listening to Paul Cook, I do not believe he has the answer either. In footballing terms, I feel as low as at any time over the past 2 or 3 seasons! Yet another huge crowd left frustrated at the final whistle, it's a crying shame!
 
The Football League have now announced the Match Day officials that will take charge of the game against Notts County this Saturday.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?572797">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
It looks as though Pompey have a near full strength squad to call upon on for the visit we'll have from Notts County. Cook probably wouldn't change much from Plymouth?


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?572802">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
Pompey's form at Fratton has been impressive this season with our home return coming against Notts County off the back of wins at Leyton Orient and a point at Plymouth last Saturday.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?572804">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
Portsmouth are at Fratton Park with Notts County the visitors today, this will be a 3pm kick-off.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?572842">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
All the stats from Portsmouth (1) vs (2) Notts County, Fratton Park, 22/10/16 Att: 17,269


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?572882">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
Manager Paul Cook has been speaking of his disappointment following defeat to Notts County this weekend.


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Hard to disagree guys, that second half was woeful - absolutely awful. The first 15-minutes or so of it was like a pre-season friendly to pre-season!

Linganzi is decent enough on the ball but his pairing with Doyle reminds me too much of the Doyle and Hollands pairing from last season, which was a reason we couldn't get going from midfield quickly and in an attacking sense.

Think Cookie has to go with one or the other along with Rose.

Defensively awful once again. Think Cookie needs to be thinking about bringing Whatmough back in perhaps, maybe even with Clarke? Errors have crept into Davies' games with those that Burgess makes not punished with him being left out (or in some cases) not proving costly.

REALLY REALLY poor on Saturday, well in that 2nd half anyway after such an (all things considered) decent enough 1st half...
 
No arguments here.

We switched off at the back for a second and a quick free quick put Armstrong in, his first touch looked to have taken the sting out of the attack but his second was a brilliant finish.

Chaplin's two chances before he scored he will be kicking himself about. The first one he did all the hard work by getting across his man, but the shot was inches wide. The second when a defensive mistake put him through on goal he had too much time to think about it. The first shot was poor and a slip meant he didn't get a second bite at it.

But the 20 minute spell after County scored we looked immense. Quick one-touch passing, getting to the byline and cutting inside and our overall movement and workrate to win the ball back was the football we all want to see. It was probably the best I've seen us play this season, so even though we went in at half time at 1-1, I really thought were gonna comfortably win by a few goals.

I don't know what Cook said to them at half time, but those 11 players who came out second half were not the same that went in 15 minutes before that.

We looked slow, awkward, frail and a shadow of ourselves. We weren't getting the ball on the deck and playing it around and defensively we looked prone to a mistake or two. To be fair to County, they came out with the gameplan to frustrate us by hoofing the ball, getting stuck in and breaking up the play as much as possible, which they did. It's not pretty but as Cookie said in his post-match, when games go scrappy we usually come out second best.

Their winning goal was a shambles. We were caught 1-on-4 at the back and they were lining up to put it in. The back line and Forde remonstrated with the ref about something, perhaps we weren't ready but I'm not sure why they weren't ready.

Stevens going off was a turning point, we lacked any shape after that, and even playing 10 men we didn't really threaten until the dying seconds.

Some positives? Chapin took his goal well and his running off the ball is non-stop, he is always looking to get in behind and should remain our talisman.

As Rug said Linganzi was rock solid, his positioning was spot on to break up any attacks and win the second balls, and while he never done anything outstanding, I don't think he gave away the ball once.

Even though we are still in 5th place it could all change if we fail to get 3 points at Cambridge. Yeovil Town are 2 points behind us, and they are in the bottom half of the table. A couple more defeats and we could be where they are.

The lads need to shake off this loss and get a winning mentality back next weekend, otherwise it'll be another season of inconsistency, which will leave us scraping for a play-off spot and we don't want to rely on that again.
 
That's the worry isn't it Frippy, the season 'seems' to be slipping into the pattern of last season - we CANNOT let that be the case!
 
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