Pompey defeat left me looking forward to next season

Approaching Easter Monday, I was quite excited about the game against Portsmouth.

In the back of my mind, I did question the attitude of Notts as we approached the match. The thought of added fire to fuel the game certain may help, yet for me I felt it wasn’t required.

Of course I’m referring to the comments made about spoiling/delaying their promotion party, it didn’t work did it?

I just didn't feel that the message was the right focus, yet I've mentioned this on social media and across the Pride of Nottingham site so I shouldn't really repeat myself.

That’s alright, I found the game to be quite flat for the most part.

Early on I hoped to encourage the quietness of the stands, so I put a message up on FB and twitter – I don’t know why, it just seemed like Notts was quite ready for the kick off.

I thought Portsmouth’s travelling support made a great amount of noise and the banter between the Kop and the Sirrel Stand (them) was amusing.

It seemed like we were nervous as a club, but I’m sure this could explain what we watched play out on the pitch. The early penalty was just silly, I actually seemed to see it in slow motion and even now I believe we could have gotten away with the decision had Duffy not lifted his bloody foot.

I don’t know, I kind of feel we see the same happen when we play a big team. I felt the exact same way when we last played Sheffield United and Coventry City back when we was a League One club.

And it wasn’t that Notts overly played badly, I do believe Portsmouth just played in a way that limited us – they always seemed to manage to get the ball back.

It was only after Jorge Grant scored that things in the stands seemed to wake up, ironically I laughed as I joined in ‘You only sing when you’re winning’ to the Pompey fans. The goal seemed to come out of nowhere, yet it sparked a brief spell where it seem like Notts could get another.

I can’t fault any of the performances mind, Jon Stead was always isolated and we missed Shola Ameobi.

The midfield was setup well enough to cope with Pompey’s style of play, and the defence just made the same minor errors we have seen all season and have repeatedly been punished by – yet really it was a deserved win for them.

After the game I had that sinking feeling, like what will I do from here? It wasn’t remotely about Portsmouth fans celebrating. Just a case of the realisation that our own season had pretty much just ended.

Bring on the 2017/2018 campaign! #COYP

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As always before the game I took to recording 'Meet the Fans', which I have also attached just in case you haven't seen it yet.

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