Saturday, November 22, 2008

Game 11: Portsmouth 2.1 Stoke City (Premier League) 05.10.08


It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been to a league ground so decided to take a trip down to Fratton to catch up with Alan, Matt and Chris and take in the game against Stoke, currently managed by ex-Portsmouth boss Tony Pulis. I was in a bit of pain with a bad back which stopped me walking too far so we had some lunch in Fratton and walked to the ground early. I haven’t been on the old Milton end since a game against Charlton in the early 90’s and I was glad to see a roof has been added since my last visit so the rain showers weren’t a problem.

The Portsmouth team has certainly improved since my last visit with a number of regular England players in the squad. However even the best players are prone to making mistakes and Stoke were gifted a great chance to score when David James hit a clearance straight to Rory Delap who put Dave Kitson in on goal. Kitson hadn’t scored for Stoke in his first 6 games and perhaps a lack of confidence led to his shot going wide.

The bulk of Portsmouth’s attacks were coming down the left flank with Nadir Belhadj and Armand Traore interchanging passes and positions. Pompey took the lead on 25 minutes with a quality strike from Peter Crouch. The ball came across from Defoe on the left handside and Crouch hit a spectacular overhead kick into the bottom left hand corner of the Milton end goal. From our vantage point you could see the ball heading in all the way – which gave me half a second to try and stand up before the crowd leapt up around us.




Stoke’s main threat this season has come from Rory Delap’s long throws and every time he got the ball he got a chorus of abuse, although this was more likely to have been due to his previous history as a Southampton player. In the 48th minute he launched a long throw into the box and another former Saint (and Pompey) player, Ricardo Fuller, managed to knock the ball in from close range.


Defoe almost replied within a minute but his shot from distance hit the post. A minute later and he repeated the trick, cutting in from the left and firing a shot past Steve Simonsen and in. Pompey made some good chances to add a third but it wasn’t to be and the game finished 2.1

The diagnosis for Stoke was another defeat but for me it turns out that I’ve torn a muscle in the base of my back and won’t be at football for a couple of weeks. Looks like it will take six months to heal properly.

No comments: