Portsmouth (H) Sat 29th April

[NottsRam77]

1 hour ago, Red Ram said:

It's time to end the experiment of of playing Lange as a central striker. It just isn't his position and he's completely ineffective and misses really good chances. He's basically a one trick pony as a winger but at this level it's a very effective trick.

So he can make a big impact out wide compared with his negligible impact as a central striker.

Is that not still not offering us more than collins does … genuine queation.. not a slight at collins 

[NottsRam77]

33 minutes ago, strawhillram said:

Anyone know when we last beat them?

From memory our record against them used to be excellent. Certainly growing upmasma kid it was 

[angieram]

One thing you can say, it's never boring following Derby.

How we didn't score in that first 20 minutes I will never know. Fleetwood did the exact same against us as McGoldrick and their shot bounced back off Wildsmith and went in. We never seem to get that rub of the green! 

Portsmouth were time-wasting from such early doors, referee never got to grips with them. I thought a couple more early bookings would have helped. Their right side centre back was practically strangling McGoldrick at every challenge. 

I suppose them scoring on the break was inevitable but I was disappointed in our response, we do seem fragile in confidence at times.

I'm pleased Warne reminded them at half time that we can play football because they seemed to forget that for a while. 

I liked the change up to bring an extra forward on, but thought that, plus maybe Smith for one of the midfield two, would have been enough. Dobbin and Barkhuizen were less effective than Sibley and Mendez-Laing,  who might have created more with that extra body to aim at in the box. 

Well taken goal by Collins, that's more like I expected him to play.

I was a bit concerned about Curtis when we went to a back four, but I needn't have worried. He seems to be playing his way into form with more minutes on the pitch (surprise, surprise.) If anyone can get us over the line this season, he can.

I'm still optimistic. Wednesday hate playing us. 

[TomTom92]

Missed opportunity in hindsight but rather todays results than us beat pompey only for posh to beat Bristol Rovers.

Plus out of all the possible results next week only a posh win and a defeat for us will see us slip out. The odds are with us.

[PistoldPete]

Good use of subs today by Warne I thought.(not often I say that). I mean one of them scored, and Smith looked tidy when he came on. Shame we didn't win to clinch a play off spot but we should be favourites now. 

[ram59]

2 things I noticed, first they had the usual 'injury' timeout when we well on top and it worked a treat. It breaks up the momentum and lets their manager have a quick reorganisation of his team to combat our play. This has crept into football and needs to have something done about it.

Secondly, I thought that the ref was fairly even handed, except that when one of their players was slowly walking off after being substituted, he appeared to call him back, so he could shake the players hand, most weird.

[PistoldPete]

13 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

Missed opportunity in hindsight but rather todays results than us beat pompey only for posh to beat Bristol Rovers.

Plus out of all the possible results next week only a posh win and a defeat for us will see us slip out. The odds are with us.

Actually a Posh big win and a draw for us would still give Posh a play off spot at our expense. 

[Brammie Steve]

49 minutes ago, mozza said:

So, chances are our next three games are against Sheffield Wednesday. 

Bit like those three games against Arsenal in early1972.

We ended up as League Champions!

[Oldben]

And so to next season ...

[BramcoteRam84]

Wow. What a game. The fans were brilliant until the Portsmouth goal and in the second half, whether it was shell shock or otherwise the crowd went silent when they scored, that was the point the players needed an immediate lift from the crowd as they had been unbelievable to that point. 

That said again we didn’t react well to the set back before we went again in the second half. Deserved more today but a point is still ok. As long as we do our job at Wednesday, Posh are going to have to do something special at Barnsley. 
 

I can’t get over how good we were until the Pompey goal and from their perspective it was a very good goal. We need to start taking more chances. NML has lost his confidence in front of goal, Didzy was unlucky, great goal by Collo very pleased for him. Additionally Jason Knight, as good as he was in that role once again he lacked composure with his final ball on numerous occasions. Probably the biggest culprit. He’s better than that.

For those lucky enough to get a ticket for Wednesday do the boys proud with your support whatever the result. Whatever ever happens in the coming weeks we’ll be in a great place as a club for next season.

[hintonsboots]

Has Dobbin been playing five a side ? Seems to side foot the ball towards goal with no power. He will score a screamer in the play offs, or does his loan expire before that ??

[jimtastic56]

23 minutes ago, angieram said:

One thing you can say, it's never boring following Derby.

How we didn't score in that first 20 minutes I will never know. Fleetwood did the exact same against us as McGoldrick and their shot bounced back off Wildsmith and went in. We never seem to get that rub of the green! 

Portsmouth were time-wasting from such early doors, referee never got to grips with them. I thought a couple more early bookings would have helped. Their right side centre back was practically strangling McGoldrick at every challenge. 

I suppose them scoring on the break was inevitable but I was disappointed in our response, we do seem fragile in confidence at times.

I'm pleased Warne reminded them at half time that we can play football because they seemed to forget that for a while. 

I liked the change up to bring an extra forward on, but thought that, plus maybe Smith for one of the midfield two, would have been enough. Dobbin and Barkhuizen were less effective than Sibley and Mendez-Laing,  who might have created more with that extra body to aim at in the box. 

Well taken goal by Collins, that's more like I expected him to play.

I was a bit concerned about Curtis when we went to a back four, but I needn't have worried. He seems to be playing his way into form with more minutes on the pitch (surprise, surprise.) If anyone can get us over the line this season, he can.

I'm still optimistic. Wednesday hate playing us. 

This is not a criticism, but from where I was in the South stand , the West stand seemed to clear before the Lap of Honour. Which is not great support for the lads. They must of all had good excuses.

[Carnero]

7 minutes ago, PistoldPete said:

Actually a Posh big win and a draw for us would still give Posh a play off spot at our expense. 

If they win by 3 at Barnsley then fair play they'll probably deserve to nick 6th!

I fully expect Barnsley to be eager for a win given they won't want to be hitting the playoffs with no win in 3 games, including two* 3 goal defeats at home (Ipswich and Peterboro*).

Realistically we're in a great position, far better than we were 8 days ago when we were 7th, and are strong favourites to finish 6th.

Bookies have it 1/6 Derby (86%) and 7/2 Peterboro (22%)... knock off their edge and you can call it 80/20 which sounds about right.

 

[TomTom92]

12 minutes ago, PistoldPete said:

Actually a Posh big win and a draw for us would still give Posh a play off spot at our expense. 

Famous last words but really can’t see Posh tearing Barnsley up away.

[mozza]

2 minutes ago, jimtastic56 said:

This is not a criticism, but from where I was in the South stand , the West stand seemed to clear before the Lap of Honour. Which is not great support for the lads. They must of all had good excuses.

I switched over to the snooker bang on the final whistle tbh..

[Crewton]

20 minutes ago, ram59 said:

2 things I noticed, first they had the usual 'injury' timeout when we well on top and it worked a treat. It breaks up the momentum and lets their manager have a quick reorganisation of his team to combat our play. This has crept into football and needs to have something done about it.

Secondly, I thought that the ref was fairly even handed, except that when one of their players was slowly walking off after being substituted, he appeared to call him back, so he could shake the players hand, most weird.

I don't know whether to laugh or be angry about that. The number of times we've seen referees behaving like tourists this season is staggering.

I've yet to see a better ref at pp this season than the woman we had a few games ago. Professional, unlike some of the incompetent little fanboys we've had.

[Tyler Durden]

Is actually pretty good that we still have a positive outcome to play for on the last game of the season. 

Probably upsets a lot of the doom mongers whom were happier when we were 7th.

If we screw things up from here then we've got no-one to blame but ourselves and not crap refs, dodgy penalties and the EFL 

[Ramarena]

25 minutes ago, hintonsboots said:

Has Dobbin been playing five a side ? Seems to side foot the ball towards goal with no power. He will score a screamer in the play offs, or does his loan expire before that ??

Usually loan players will stay till the last play off game their club plays.

[ram59]

28 minutes ago, jimtastic56 said:

This is not a criticism, but from where I was in the South stand , the West stand seemed to clear before the Lap of Honour. Which is not great support for the lads. They must of all had good excuses.

To be fair. from my view point in the lower east, the amount of people who stayed for the lap of honour was disappointing in all of the stands, this is a criticism.

[G STAR RAM]

3 hours ago, strawhillram said:

How on Earth are we going to beat  any of the top teams over two legs. 
That’s if If we do stumble into the play offs

Well so far we have:-

Drawn with Sheff Wed

Won 1 lost 1 against Barnsley

Won 1 drawn 1 against Bolton

So not really sure what your concern is?