Brief Synopsis!!! (Portsmouth)

[r4h4al]

Ladapo 3 - nothing new. Can't hold the ball up, and now he's not getting so many chances his goals have dried up. Taylor, please.

Agree. I think a change up front is what's needed.

 

[Raul 1]

Frustrating that we're still not picking our strongest centre-forward (I'm bored of saying it week in week out), but it was a decent team performance and a good result. Portsmouth looked far more direct than I remember them under Cook - Jackett must be doing something right though for them to be as high up as they are.

The first half was a non-event - far too much hoof and hope. The second half was more like it, and we deserved the point imo.

Letheren 6 - one great save, can't be blamed for the goal as he was unsighted, also can't be blamed for the shanked kick that only went 20 yards as it took a bobble. His general kicking though was poor.

ASB 6 - Portsmouth closed him down very quickly in the first half, and there were a couple of naive free kicks which he gave away again. Did well in the second half though when given more space.

Edwards 7 - won his headers, fantastic tackle on their guy at 0-1 as well. Real game-changer.

Canavan 7 - very good defensive work and distribution, marred by him missing from 4 yards out in the first half.

Sawyer 6 - got skinned a few times but mostly fine.

Songo'o 6 - not quite getting the high ratings for him - sure he was passionate as usual, and won a lot of tackles, but his passing still leaves too much to be desired. One silly dummy also led to a Portsmouth counter attack chance. We've got better options than him (namely Threlkeld).

Fox 8 - decision making and use of the ball were simply superb.

Sarcevic 6 - fair play to him for carrying on after the knock, he didn't play too badly either.

Lameiras 5 - excellent off the ball, absolutely terrible on it.

Carey 8 - that free kick, and that piece of skill. Simply, wow. He was right back on it in the second half today.

Ladapo 3 - nothing new. Can't hold the ball up, and now he's not getting so many chances his goals have dried up. Taylor, please.

Subs:
Taylor 6 - also nothing new. The ball was suddenly sticking up front when we went long - apart from when the Portsmouth defenders were fouling him that is.

Ladapo is the wrong player for this team. Our attacking strengths are Lameiras and Carey - Taylor's first instinct when he gets the ball is to look for them. Exactly the way it should be. Nobody knows what Ladapo's going to do, including him. Means we surrender possession too quickly.

I thought ASB had a great game. Tidy at the back and thoughtful in possession. He's going to be a real asset.

 

[memory man]

It was a cracking second half of football which featured one of the goals of the season from Graham Carey in what was our only shot on target.

Our general play deserved to win us the game but we didn't create enough chances to score a second goal but a draw is ok and keeps our good run going.

Portsfoul were very robust and resorted to fouling which the ref failed to control and he was not helped by the linesman on the Lyndhurst side who was poor and missed a lot of incidents.
Derek Adams did receive a yellow card for complaining about one particular foul that went unpunished.

For a team that has spent most of the season near the top of the league I expected more from Portsfoul; they looked very much like an average League One team.

The first half was very stop/start and scrappy and not one that Ruben Lameiras will want to remember, he just couldn't get into the game and often lost possession.
Both teams looked nervous and it took a while for the game to settle down which was not helped by a swirling wind.

The main highlight was what looked like a serious injury to Sarcevic. He stretched for the ball and went down in a heap, thumping his hand on the pitch, the club doctor and medical team were in attendance and a stretcher was called, it looked like Sarcevic's season was over. But a miracle occurred and thankfully Sarcevic was up and running around within minutes.

The second half as a spectacle was much better. You could see that Ladapo and Lameiras had a talking to at half time because they both raised their game by some distance. The Argyle fans responded to this new attacking threat and created a great atmosphere, however for all our possession we couldn't create good goal scoring opportunities.

Portsfoul carried on in the same manner as the first half - a nudge here, a push there, followed by a dangerous tackle, all waved on their merry way by referee Ben Toner who seemed to take a preference to the colour blue.

Portsfoul edged in front against the run of play when we failed to deal with a corner. Letheren had made a fantastic save to tip a long range shot from Ronan Curtis out for a corner, the flag kick was partially cleared to the edge of the box and Ben Close hit a low shot through a crowd of players and into the net. We didn't deserve that.

The Argyle team from August to December would have folded at that point but the 2019 team are made of stronger stuff and got back in the saddle and took the game back to Portsfoul.

We had a stroke of luck when the ref finally awarded a free-kick from another Portsfoul foul. The set-piece was central and 25 yards out and upstepped Carey to curl the ball around the wall and into the top corner. Magnificent! His first goal for months and what a time to score it. The Portsfoul bell fell silent.

At that point we looked the more likely winner although we had to be careful of Portsfoul counter-attacks and a linesman who allowed them to continue despite being off-side.

Taylor replaced Ladapo and we probed and pushed for the winner but it wouldn't come. It finished all square at 1-1.

What an effort from the players who showed grit and determination plus skill and technique .
Carey raised his game to another level following his goal, especially one piece of sublime trickery by the goal line, hopefully it was caught on camera.

It wasn't the best game for Lameiras, he tried and tried but too often a tricky turn lost possession but it's great to see Carey and Lameiras just doing their stuff and probably the most skilful players we've had since Akos Buzsaky.

The stand out players for me were Songo'o and Smith-Brown. Songo'o has added passing skills to his game this season and still flies into tackles - taking no prisoner, while Smith-Brown just gets better and better and is now looking more composed.

It didn't really workout for Ladapo, he had a good 10 minute spell after half time but if he's not scoring he needs to contribute more to the team, although to be fair he was up against two big monsters at centre-back.
Sarcevic had a good game, especially after his injury, he seemed possessed after receiving the wet sponge.
Sawyer should change his name by deed poll to "Gary Sawyer 7/10".

The two centre-backs were rock solid with Edwards winning a lot of headers. What a difference Letheren has made, not only making great saves but also his command and organisation of the defence.

We could have won, we could have lost, so we'll take a point and move onto Yorkshire.

Man of the Match: Songo'o.

Letheren 7, Smith-Brown 8, Edwards 7, Canavan 7, Sawyer 7, Fox 7, Songo'o 8, Sarcevic 7, Carey 7, Lameiras 6, Ladapo 5. Sub - Taylor 6.

As an exile I depend very much on the better entries in the Synopsis. I hope you will know I have particularly enjoyed yours. But today was rather spoiled for me with the constant use of "Portsfoul". The first time it was amusing, the second perhaps tolerable - the other 4 rather grated on me and spoiled the overall enjoyment effect of another otherwise really excellent piece.

 

[Latchbrook Green]

To think that people around me were calling for Carey to be sub’d. When you need a goal you should never take off your most skillful players, I.e. Carey & Lameras, no matter how bad a game they may be having , there is always the chance they will produce one moment of brilliance.

 

[Gary Wills]

Pulsating second half.

ASB, Canavan and Songo'o very impressive. Fox covered good ground but seemed to have the wrong boots on.
Sarce will be such a loss once inevitably out banned, we've no one else like him down the middle.
Not Freddie's day, but once back on it, a far greater headache for defenders than Taylor in a fast game like this, and creates a hole for Sarce, which Taylor just can't offer, defenders have no threat round the back as there's no pace without Freddie.

 

[Metal Green Mickey]

Cracking game of football but not in a purist way. A lot of heart, endeavour and two teams trying to win. Add ontop of that the odd bit of outrageous skill by Carey and Lameiras and this became a good league one game.

However, if I was a Pompey fan ld wonder if that type of football is really what they hope to see. Under Cook, they got the ball out wide and played with the emphasis on getting your full backs forwards, keep possession and moving the ball. Under Jackett today it just look like a organised unit who got it forward early as possible but wasted so much possession. One real danger man l was concerned about was Jamal Lowe. Up against Sawyer l thought he would be one to watch. Yet, especially first half, there was no need for concerned as he was often by-passed by a direct ball to Bogle.

Not much happened in the first half. The game was very even. Argyle had one chance off a cross deflected off an opponent that well narrowly wide.

Second half Argyle and Pompey stepped it up. Their left back was getting forward more. Put in some decent crosses. Yet more often it was Argyle on the front foot. The only thing they were lacking was getting a decent cross to their loverly build up play or getting a decent shot on target to test the keeper. Sometimes they dwell on the ball for too long.

So the goal came against the run of play. Letheren had only just made a loverly save from a effort curled for the top right corner from the left hand side of the 18 yard box. Their goal came from a couple of challenges in the box. It arriving to one of their players just inside our box. We didn’t get out to block it and a clinical low strike in bottom left corner.

Argyle kept plugging away though. And though some fans thought the ref’s performance was poor he gave a dubious free kick where you could clearly see the Pompey player had cleanly won the ball. Anyhow, it made up for some of the bad ones it may of missed. A cracking free kick from a very inconsistent and frustrating Carey. It was sublime. And yet mins later he couldn’t even lift a free kick into their penalty box from a dangerous area.

After we score, both teams had half hearted chances. The thing is Pompey would normally get their shot away and get Letheren to force a save. Too many times our fantastic approach play was met with dithering in and around the penalty box of Portsmouth. Maybe you say that’s harsh but ask yourself how many times was the Portsmouth keeper forced to make a save. Letheren had abit more to do which in a game of tight margins can make the difference if a side is getting more shots in on target, than you.

I thought Songo and Fox had very strong games. They worked tirelessly in midfield. We just seemed to start the attacks at them really well and often started with great covering work by Songo and Fox playing the simple but often correct ball forward. In fact the defence looked pretty decent to. Edwards and Sawyer just seemed to have really good games.

This is a good point against a team in the top 6 and we really competed very well. The only thing l would want us to improve is to complement our approach play with a more ruthless cutting edge. We need to find a way of creating opportunities and then when we do, instead of another pass, have a shot and hit the target.

 

[Knibbsworth]

It was a cracking second half of football which featured one of the goals of the season from Graham Carey in what was our only shot on target.

Our general play deserved to win us the game but we didn't create enough chances to score a second goal but a draw is ok and keeps our good run going.

Portsfoul were very robust and resorted to fouling which the ref failed to control and he was not helped by the linesman on the Lyndhurst side who was poor and missed a lot of incidents.
Derek Adams did receive a yellow card for complaining about one particular foul that went unpunished.

For a team that has spent most of the season near the top of the league I expected more from Portsfoul; they looked very much like an average League One team.

The first half was very stop/start and scrappy and not one that Ruben Lameiras will want to remember, he just couldn't get into the game and often lost possession.
Both teams looked nervous and it took a while for the game to settle down which was not helped by a swirling wind.

The main highlight was what looked like a serious injury to Sarcevic. He stretched for the ball and went down in a heap, thumping his hand on the pitch, the club doctor and medical team were in attendance and a stretcher was called, it looked like Sarcevic's season was over. But a miracle occurred and thankfully Sarcevic was up and running around within minutes.

The second half as a spectacle was much better. You could see that Ladapo and Lameiras had a talking to at half time because they both raised their game by some distance. The Argyle fans responded to this new attacking threat and created a great atmosphere, however for all our possession we couldn't create good goal scoring opportunities.

Portsfoul carried on in the same manner as the first half - a nudge here, a push there, followed by a dangerous tackle, all waved on their merry way by referee Ben Toner who seemed to take a preference to the colour blue.

Portsfoul edged in front against the run of play when we failed to deal with a corner. Letheren had made a fantastic save to tip a long range shot from Ronan Curtis out for a corner, the flag kick was partially cleared to the edge of the box and Ben Close hit a low shot through a crowd of players and into the net. We didn't deserve that.

The Argyle team from August to December would have folded at that point but the 2019 team are made of stronger stuff and got back in the saddle and took the game back to Portsfoul.

We had a stroke of luck when the ref finally awarded a free-kick from another Portsfoul foul. The set-piece was central and 25 yards out and upstepped Carey to curl the ball around the wall and into the top corner. Magnificent! His first goal for months and what a time to score it. The Portsfoul bell fell silent.

At that point we looked the more likely winner although we had to be careful of Portsfoul counter-attacks and a linesman who allowed them to continue despite being off-side.

Taylor replaced Ladapo and we probed and pushed for the winner but it wouldn't come. It finished all square at 1-1.

What an effort from the players who showed grit and determination plus skill and technique .
Carey raised his game to another level following his goal, especially one piece of sublime trickery by the goal line, hopefully it was caught on camera.

It wasn't the best game for Lameiras, he tried and tried but too often a tricky turn lost possession but it's great to see Carey and Lameiras just doing their stuff and probably the most skilful players we've had since Akos Buzsaky.

The stand out players for me were Songo'o and Smith-Brown. Songo'o has added passing skills to his game this season and still flies into tackles - taking no prisoner, while Smith-Brown just gets better and better and is now looking more composed.

It didn't really workout for Ladapo, he had a good 10 minute spell after half time but if he's not scoring he needs to contribute more to the team, although to be fair he was up against two big monsters at centre-back.
Sarcevic had a good game, especially after his injury, he seemed possessed after receiving the wet sponge.
Sawyer should change his name by deed poll to "Gary Sawyer 7/10".

The two centre-backs were rock solid with Edwards winning a lot of headers. What a difference Letheren has made, not only making great saves but also his command and organisation of the defence.

We could have won, we could have lost, so we'll take a point and move onto Yorkshire.

Man of the Match: Songo'o.

Letheren 7, Smith-Brown 8, Edwards 7, Canavan 7, Sawyer 7, Fox 7, Songo'o 8, Sarcevic 7, Carey 7, Lameiras 6, Ladapo 5. Sub - Taylor 6.

As an exile I depend very much on the better entries in the Synopsis. I hope you will know I have particularly enjoyed yours. But today was rather spoiled for me with the constant use of "Portsfoul". The first time it was amusing, the second perhaps tolerable - the other 4 rather grated on me and spoiled the overall enjoyment effect of another otherwise really excellent piece.

The strange thing is that 'Portsfoul' is not a pun or any intelligent or humorous play on words. I agree PL2 does the best match reports by far but that part was particularly odd.

 

[Nobby]

Don't think either team played particularly well. Very few chances, quite scrappy in the midfield, although I would say we had the better of the play. Despite that, some good individual performances and further evidence that this team really is way more capable that we've been shown in the first half of this season.

Letheren - 7 - His kicking wasn't great today, but made one fantastic stop.
ASB - 7 - He was getting targeted in the second half and didn't get much help. A bit wasteful with the ball, but generally solid.
Edwards - 7 - Looks a totally different player to the one I saw before Christmas.
Canavan - 7 - Tidy and solid.
Sawyer - 8 - I don't think he was any better than his defensive colleagues, but the fact he was up against Jamal Lowe and barely gave the bloke a kick wins him a bonus mark.
Fox - 8 - In a scrappy first half where a lot of passes were misplaced, David Fox was cool as a cucumber and kept the ball ticking.
Songo'o - 7 - A bit loose in possession at times, but defensively it was like watching Makelele.
Sarcevic - 7 - His usual industrious self. I honestly thought his season was over the way he reacted to his injury, still shocked he finished the game.
Lameiras - 6 - He was awful in the first half. Changed his boots and was better in the second, some lovely close control and interplay, but wasn't up to recent efforts.
Carey - 8 - He also started poorly, but from about 20 mins onwards looked like his old self. Stunning free kick and that piece of skill in the corner was absolute filth. Really hope a camera caught it.
Ladapo - 4 - Yeah, just pretty bad all round. On a completely different wave length to the rest of the side. Wasn't his day.

Taylor - 6 - Linked up well when he came on.

 

[GreenThing]

After we score, both teams had half hearted chances. The thing is Pompey would normally get their shot away and get Letheren to force a save. Too many times our fantastic approach play was met with dithering in and around the penalty box of Portsmouth. Maybe you say that’s harsh but ask yourself how many times was the Portsmouth keeper forced to make a save. Letheren had abit more to do which in a game of tight margins can make the difference if a side is getting more shots in on target, than you.

I think a lot of that is because Portsmouth packed the area with bodies when defending. The dithering was us trying to find a gap to shoot through. Good defending in my book.

 

[Bonehead]

Draw was a fair result , 2 committed teams

 

[Bonehead]

Time to start with Taylor??

 

[Steve Evans]

not a match that will live long in the memory but a good battle which argyle shaded to me.portsmouth were very physical and long ball and i don't see them getting promoted.i am going to give high marks to most players because they applied themselves totally.

Kyle Letheren - 9 superb performance.no chance with the goal and gives the team confidence.
Ashley Smith-Brown - 8 a wee nugget.classy and improving all the time
Ryan Edwards - 9 won every header.back to his best
Niall Canavan - 9.a very cultured player.lacks pace but you can't learn to run fast
Gary Sawyer - 9.mister dependable
Yann Songo'o - 9 man o' steel.heart of a lion
David Fox - 9 immaculate match
Antoni Sarcevic - 8 gutsy and always involved
Graham Carey - 10+ superhuman and THATpece of skill!
Ruben Lameiras - 6.marked by at least two players all game
Freddie Ladapo - 4.sorry freddie.honest player but poor again today.

 

[Ross]

Carey's goal was overdue. When the freekick was awarded my brother and I just looked at each other with a knowing smile - of course he would score! What a beauty!

A point was fair for both sides that on that performance will be playing League One football next season.

 

[Penmaster]

Seems like a well earned point and keeps our run going. Freddie could do with a goal just to give him a boost.

Was there much trouble at or around the ground?

 

[Steve Evans]

Seems like a well earned point and keeps our run going. Freddie could do with a goal just to give him a boost.

Was there much trouble at or around the ground?

there was a scrap in the car park at about half past two.