Northern Red

What was Wade Elliott like,  never heard him mentioned in commentary!

He was okay, but no better than that. Some nice passes but gave the ball away cheaply on a few occasions too.

Marv was having a very good game until he had to go off.

Just back home now.

A well-earned point in horrible conditions. Oldham might feel hard done by if we'd nicked all 3, but we slightly edged it in terms of chances and never really looked like losing the game either.

The defence looked a lot more solid in a flat 4. Flint in particular was excellent, and El Abd had a good game too. I hadn't seen him in the flesh before today but the comments from those who had were that it was his best game for us by some distance. Williams looked a bit out of place at left back, he defended well enough but certainly didn't provide as much threat going forward as Cunningham does. I'd have to see the goal we conceded again, but from my angle I thought Moore could have got nearer to it. Other than that he looked very solid, didn't have too many saves to make but much more commanding of his area than Parish. That said, the goal could have been prevented if we'd attempted to close their player down.

Going forward we created a few chances but nothing really clear cut, and I can't recall their keeper making a save of note. Barnett holds it up well, but seemed a bit lazy when we didn't have the ball. Burns was very lively but we didn't get the ball to him enough, especially in the 2nd half. The midfield were a mixed bag, some nice passing and battling tackles, but also a hell of a lot of squandered possesion.

In isolation, that's a decent result. Unfortunately we really need to start winning these types of games and bar the odd moment, we didn't look that likely to do so today. If he sticks with 4 at the back, then I'd be confident we can pick up enough points at home to be alright. It was 4-3-3 today and it looked solid for the most part, the problem is how you get JET into that formation. He came on for Burns on the right of the front 3 but didn't look entirely comfortable there.

Balls

Reid shoots over from 6 yards after a City counter attack

Are there any Watford fans there?

City fans sound in fine voice

another  great shout from you

Let's not be too harsh. It's the first post I've ever seen from him that's even remotely positive, despite the SO'D dig.

And they were intent on roughing us up.

 

It didn't work and the team was composed and put in a very professional performance.

 

Very pleased with today and how the team performed.

 

Job done.

I think it helped that the ref clamped down on it reasonably early and booked a couple of them, meaning they had to lay off a bit. Though there were still a fair few 'robust' challenges going in.

Really professional performance, the only criticisim is that we could and should have won by more. It was getting a little nervy in the few minutes before our 2nd goal, but we should have been 3 or 4 up by that point.

Did anyone hear Alastair Cook being interviewed pre-match by Jim Maxwell, the Australian guy who works for Test Match Special?

Maxwell asked him if the team were ready and up for it, only for Cook to utter the immortal words "stupid question"!

The best glitches I ever saw were the following...

 

1. "In the air, and safe, and out!"

 

2. There's runs here, there's trouble here!"

 

3. And edged, and safe and out!"

 

I loved it.

The best one I found was where you hit a shot that went just past the fielder, only for him to magically invisibly claw the ball back from several yards behind him and hit the stumps with a direct hit to run you out.

This is kind of ashes related, but I thought Brian Lara cricket had the odd glitch, this is farcical!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25137093

Brilliant. Brian Lara Cricket was a great game, even if it did have a few glitches.

I've played a few cricket games since and every one has been riddled with glitches.

This is the worrying thing for me.    The Board said that they had a definite strategy but they didn't stick to it.   Yes the results were disappointing but even by JL's own admission in the interviews yesterday there were signs of improvement - albeit slow.    So what on Earth are they playing at?

 

I just hope they have already lined someone up and are keeping it quiet for a bit just to show some decency towards SOD.   If they have no alternative lined up, it confirms what I've said elsewhere that the Board are just a bunch of clowns 

True. But then they publically backed Del then sacked him barely a week later and had SO'D being paraded to the press a couple of days after that.

If your last sentence is true, then the logical conclusion would be that circumstances had changed dramatically in the last 24 hours of his tenure leading to him being sacked.

According to Dollymarie on twitter:

SOD clearly had no idea this was coming. He was sat in a primary school yesterday reading books with kids

Is he available?

We made the last one Vice Chairman.

I hate the bloke and would never have imagined being happy about his appointment but frankly I'd take him over a lot of the other names being bandied about, like Steve Cotterill, Di Canio etc.

You can bet, whoever the next manager is will be a lap dog to the board and Lansdown.

 

It's no secret that SL doesn't get on with SoD... this is his doing imho.

 

I have no faith in this board or SL anymore... in fact I've always doubted their footballing knowledge...not their money.

 

I feel sorry for the next manager having to work with this lot...

 

I hope the fans realise it's the board killing this Club and not the managers.

Spot on as usual.

Johnson, Coppell, Millen, McInnes, O'Driscoll. There's one constant there. They can't all be bad managers, and a couple of them have since proved that they aren't.

He hates us, we hate him.

No thanks.

Agree. I'm now about as disillusioned with the ****wits running the club and the minority of ****wits that support it as I've ever been. I dread to think who we will end up with now.

Spot on.

I wouldn't be so disappointed if there was an obvious candidate to come in, but I can't see one.

Absolute shambles. Not his biggest fan but there were signs he was starting to get it right.

Swindon

St Albans 1-8 Mansfield. We put 9 past them at this stage a few years back.

I feel sorry for the fans but the way that club has been run in recent years is absolutely shocking. If it were a proper business and not a football club (spot the irony) then it'd have been wound down months and perhaps even years ago. Of course I sympathise and I'd hate it it if were us (again) but considering their repeated policy of handing out big contracts and generally taking the Michael it is my view they should have gone already.

It would be a lovely gesture if some of the bigger earners walked away, but to label them a disgrace for not doing so is incredibly harsh, it is the club's fault for continually handing out high value contracts.

We were incredibly lucky when it was us. It was an exceptionally selfless gesture from a exceptional group of people and it is not fair to use that as the yardstick by which to measure others against.

Quite, different times now. The money has ruined the top tier of the game, these players came to Portsmouth because they were offered stupidly high salaries. I don't expect them to have any loyalty to the club, run as it was as a rich man's plaything. Portsmouth's operating company will hopefully fold and these rich men will lose their "investment", then the fans set up a new Portsmouth 2012 FC in Div 3 or the conference.

In 1982 players in general had loyalty to their club, the Ashton Gate 8 were exemplary but in many ways typical of their time. You could still see a few of our players behaving that honorably but could you see it for the Man City or Arsenal squads?

Both spot on.

I don't think you can blame the players at all, and tbh if it was us in that situation again I'm not sure if any of ours would do the same, perhaps a few of the local lads but that's probably it.

I have sympathy for the fans and those non-football staff who stand to lose their jobs but quite frankly the club should have been shut down 2 years ago, and despite being let off once, those in charge continued to spend beyond their means and stick 2 proverbial fingers up to their creditors, taking no responsibility for their situation.

I don't know who we think we are, turning up and daring to not be beaten by such a managerial great. After all, he's good enough to manage Real Madrid you know, he said so himself...

Rooney.

Your list has left me dumbfounded.

David Rennie?

Steve McClaren?

Chris Honor?

Soren Andersen?

Vimos Sebok?

I'm especially surprised by Rennie. Him and Andy May formed one of the best midfields I've ever seen down Ashton Gate - though I'd like to point out I was too young to remember the mythical days of top-flight football.

Soren was class, and Sebok showed glimpses of quality, though playing in a defence shorn of confidence will make anyone look bad.

I was a bit too young to remember Rennie properly, though I do recall most people being very happy when Denis Smith sold him.