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Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Reports and reaction from the 2017-2018 season as Walsall finished 19th in League 1
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Sadsfan
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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sat Mar 31, 2018 6:35 pm

Christ, that was poor. We have the look of a team that has no confidence and are on the slide into the final relegation spot. Cuvelier is totally finished as a professional footballer, Dobson did more in his 20 minutes and I felt he was unlucky to be left out, as in my opinion he has been our best midfielder recently. Renewed my season ticket today as well, the only positive I can take from that is that I was served by an absolutely gorgeous young lady!

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sat Mar 31, 2018 6:43 pm

Well I thought that the team selection and tactics were no better than previous although I realise that we held them at 0 - 0 for a while. I thought we hoofed the ball too much in the first half but when we did get it down and play we look decent going forward. Ngoy was wasted on the wing and as already mentioned Ngoy is our best option upfront so with Edwards out why not put Baka & Ngoy upfront as we always look better the few times we have gone with 2 strikers. We can go 3 at the back to fit ozzy in and play with wing backs. Thats something different not what we saw today, that was no better in fact in some ways it was worse in my opinion.

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sat Mar 31, 2018 7:00 pm

Can't score. Can't keep a clean sheet.

Sky highlights:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gtNBbY ... p=drivesdk

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sat Mar 31, 2018 7:44 pm

We are reaping the fruits of the previous Manager's reign. Boys against men.. We are fu*ked.

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sat Mar 31, 2018 7:53 pm

A slight improvement in performance but same result and same problems. With our " steely " defence you know a clean sheet is rare and we will concede at least 1 goal. You also know at the other end we are toothless and cannot score no matter what combination is used, so where are thegoals needed to get the points to keep us up coming from.
Ozzy who has kept us up so far now since his public statement he is off no longer looks interested and Bakeoko would struggle to get in a sunday pub side.
I saw the team and thought at last 2 up front to have a gobut was amazed to see Ngoy out left in midfield a true Whitney move.

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sat Mar 31, 2018 8:00 pm

Ozzy was poor today, looking at the team sheet I thought we would go for a 4-3-1-2 but it was the same formation as it had been for the last few years. Dare I say it but Ozzy leaving will give us more flexibility formation wise.

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sat Mar 31, 2018 8:06 pm

Keates needs to get in Ozzy's head now.

Yes he's leaving but the club are still paying his wages and their is still a job to do. Another Southend performance against one of the relegation rivals is required.

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sat Mar 31, 2018 8:47 pm

TBH the whole team looks like they don't know where the next goal is coming from. Worrying times ahead.

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sun Apr 01, 2018 7:42 am

My first game for a few months due to illness and have to say it looked little different to what I last witnessed.

I appreciate that largely, the players haven’t changed but to my mind Deano needs to (and he likely is already doing it) give them a few home truths about themselves but try to inject some urgency into their approach.

Agree with most posters ref Baka, he simply does far too little to warrant being called a striker and Ngoy looking like he was playing out of a natural forwards position, we seemed toothless to say the least

Ozzy’s head is elsewhere and he just seemed to be going through the motions - no real urgency and impact (that said, credit to Pompey who seemed to keep him ‘quiet’) with a plan that worked very effectively...

Leahy continues to look a total liability to me, a few times in the first half particularly, he was so far off their No 18 (Lowe) that he was ebasically giving him free reign to play anywhere and attack at will

I have this theory that our bogey teams for years in this division have been the Greater Manchester lot (Rochdale, Bury and Oldham) which unfortunately coud end up heavily influencing where we finish this season looking at what’s left for us and their ability to drag points off us...

Stats wise our last 10 games v Bury have resulted in just 1 win for us although v Oldham we’ve improved in recent years to win ratio of around 50% but prior to that it was pretty awful.

I sincerely hope Deano can change their mindset in the coming week or so because with so many games effectively 6 pointers, any lack of mental strength (never mind the general lack of actual football form and confidence) could be the undoing of us....

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sun Apr 01, 2018 7:58 am

PT wrote:Enjoyed that.

For me, Keates is in a no lose situation. We lost our two best players (Oztumer and Edwards) before he arrived. The rest of the team is bog standard fourth division quality. Hence we were outclassed by Wigan who are two divisions above us and shaded out of it by Pompey who are a decent third division outfit.

So my enjoyment today came from a game that we were second best for quality but had the work-rate and effort to stay in it until the 95th minute. A point wouldn’t have been daylight robbery by any stretch which is a fine effort against a superior side. Credit to Keates for trying something a bit different and on another day it might just have come off.

The good news for us is that after Bradford we play other sides who are also in a third/fourth division twighlight zone and based on today, we might just have the character to eek out the couple of wins we need.



I wish I could share your optimism PT - we are lacking confidence, ability and seem to have a misfit approach to our tactics based on a certain previous managers approach.

I feel NO comfort with our remaining games because too many of them are against sides around us in the reality of the potential drop - given our current lack of quality and options in too many areas, I don’t see where the wins will come from and if we lose any of those games then we are seriously in the mire in my opinion....

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sun Apr 01, 2018 9:39 am

They're not suddenly going to become an open attacking great footballing side are they? There's way to much at stake for Keats,but if you look at it this way, 0-3 against Wigan 0-1 against Pompey surely they are improving..... :D.Keats can't afford to try anything clever between now and the end of the season.He may even try 11 players standing on the line for 90 mins if things get really desperate.... :lol:

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sun Apr 01, 2018 10:05 am

Thanks Whitney... your inability to hold on to your senior staff has left us with an unbalanced and poor quality side.... On the bright side we looked a little more organised and although their "Stats" looked a lot better I didn't think we were out of the game at any stage.

We need to get over the line then clear the decks....

Oh and has anybody seen Ozzy? I hardly did yesterday... already on the beach... drop him monday rather than palying a system to accomodate one player

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sun Apr 01, 2018 11:41 am

PT wrote:Enjoyed that.

For me, Keates is in a no lose situation. We lost our two best players (Oztumer and Edwards) before he arrived. The rest of the team is bog standard fourth division quality. Hence we were outclassed by Wigan who are two divisions above us and shaded out of it by Pompey who are a decent third division outfit.

So my enjoyment today came from a game that we were second best for quality but had the work-rate and effort to stay in it until the 95th minute. A point wouldn’t have been daylight robbery by any stretch which is a fine effort against a superior side. Credit to Keates for trying something a bit different and on another day it might just have come off.

The good news for us is that after Bradford we play other sides who are also in a third/fourth division twighlight zone and based on today, we might just have the character to eek out the couple of wins we need.

Absolutely right PT Ozzy has been very poor by his standards since the transfer window.He was non existent yesterday.A play maker who is never on the ball is a problem.We obviously do not know what is going on in his world but based on yesterday he is not worth a place.It is a pity that a player who has been brilliant for the last 18months is letting himself and the club down.Have no problem with him leaving at the end of the season but would have liked him to leave with his reputation intact.

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Sun Apr 01, 2018 12:02 pm

Cheesebag wrote:Thanks Whitney... your inability to hold on to your senior staff has left us with an unbalanced and poor quality side.... On the bright side we looked a little more organised and although their "Stats" looked a lot better I didn't think we were out of the game at any stage.

We need to get over the line then clear the decks....

Oh and has anybody seen Ozzy? I hardly did yesterday... already on the beach... drop him monday rather than palying a system to accomodate one player


You say that, but the rest of 'that' team, without at least one quality player, capable of pulling the occasional rabbit out of the hat (even though he is already 'on the beach') who have we, that could either score a goal or even hope to avoid defeat?
Would have liked to have gone to Valley Parade on Monday, but why? The EFL could just award Bradford the points, avoid the embarrassment and save on costs....Our No.1 fan & puppet Board would like that!
We just have to hope that we don't cock it up against these upcoming 6 pointers.........................

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Re: Portsmouth (H) 31st March, 3pm

Fri Apr 06, 2018 9:41 pm

I did hear that portsmouth were going to help us protest against bonser and the board? by holding banners with bonser out and the like, so did it happen? :|

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