Match Discussion: Game 43 - Pompey (H)

[PON_News]

Game 43 - Pompey (H)

Team: Portsmouth

Date: 17/04/17

Where: Meadow Lane

What line-up should Kevin Nolan opt for? What will be the key areas for the Magpies to get a victory? What do you think the final score will be?

Have your say below, join in with the Pride of Nottingham match discussion.

[liampie]

i am looking forward to the game, portsmouth bring good numbers and its one of the fewer l2 games where it feels notts are bigger than this division. i think it would not be productive to see notts defend or park the bus, tho we should probably be setup so we can defend and attack.

so balanced for me, if we aim to attack and get caught out. i think they will show us up.

[Who r ya?? You Pies!!]

Think this could be an entertaining encounter , hopefully we can play with a measure of freedom and give a good account of ourselves , COYP

[Chris]

I'm really looking forward to the game, so regardless of what happens the atmosphere will be impressive.

However, I just have this feeling like we are setting the game up to be more important than it should be and knowing Notts - this usually means it won't go to plan. I hope I am wrong, yet I do feel this is very likely. I just don't want to see Portsmouth thrash us, not because I want to spoil their party but because of how we are approaching the game. It would be great to see us evenly match them or even out play Portsmouth but I don't think it's likely.

A good performance will do me fine, if we can grab the win - it'll be impressive.

Yet we don't need to see how far we have come by beating a promotion contender, we have already seen the 'difference' - so I would hope we focus on the game alone.

[Elite_pie]

Just happy to get to this stage of the season and be able to be fairly relaxed about the result, as I honestly thought these last few games would be real nail-biters.  Looking forward to tomorrow, I'm using my 'bring a friend' voucher to try and tempt one of my daughter's boyfriends into wanting more, so an exciting game with a few goals would be ideal.  As far as the line-up goes,  maybe Milsom back in if he's fit at the expense of Hewitt or Campbell, otherwise leave it as it is.  I'll go for a 2-2 draw.

[Who r ya?? You Pies!!]

Got the excitement back , really buzzing for today's game , had my Notts shirt on early sent my daughter a pic , waiting on her now , can't wait , so glad to have this wanting to be at the Lane feeling back , COYP

[Chris]

It was strange from a Notts point of view.

Our players started off very slowly and the pace never really picked up, I feel the same about the stands - we never really got behind the game. Don't get me wrong the atmosphere was okay and Pompey really impressed me. It was just like we didn't know what to do, so we never seemed likely to raise up to the occasion. I'm afraid all this talk of spoiling their party seems even more pointless now.

Notts did alright, defensively we should have been better but Portsmouth didn't allow us to play - it's as simple as that.

I can't complain about any of the performances mind, though I do realise that we will be better off without certain players.

[liampie]

i thought we was quite poor tbf.

we was too defensive and we never really passed the ball around well, we just lost the ball because portsmouth wanted it more. i honestly was not impressed, only certain players like grant, milsom, campbell looked eager to get involved.

thought we also missed ameobi, stead was isolated also.

[Elite_pie]

The absence of Ameobi was a big blow, we know playing Stead as a lone striker doesn't work.  I thought in team selection and formation we showed them too much respect and handed them the initiative from the start.  On the plus side an excellent attendance and atmosphere, at least it gives us an idea of where we need to be to compete at the top end of the league.

[Who r ya?? You Pies!!]

Portsmouth had so much to play for , they weren't nervy they were bang at it and it made it hard to get a strong foothold in the game , but what a good atmosphere , i enjoyed the afternoon if not the result , and oh my how i would love to celebrate like that with Notts again in the future , COYP

[Elite_pie]

The goals from today, which backs up my thoughts at the game - no need to lunge in for the penalty, great finish from Grant, Collin should have done better with their second, and would love to see a better angle for their third because he looks miles offside.
 

http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/league-two/10841591/notts-county-1-3-portsmouth

[Piethagoram]

As @Elite_pie points out, ..An idea of where we need to be to compete at the top end of the league. .. Noticed from the programme how much smaller Portsmouth's squad was. Just that they have invested in picking quality players. Burgess, their #6, best centre half in the division. Claims for handball against him rightly waved away for accidental handball.

Jamal Lowe proving assured recruitment from Non League that there are good players to be found.

I have a feeling that despite the turnaround in our fortunes under Nolan's tutorialship, some unpleasant pruning of our squad still needs to be done

[PompeyFan]

Would just like to say a massive thank you for being excellent hosts yesterday. An amazing day for our football club and you really played your part in letting supporters onto the pitch, playing Mike Oldfield's Portsmouth, and allowing the players to celebrate on the balcony of your stand. Classy from you guys - a proper football club. Wish you all the best for the rest of this year and hopefully you'll have a promotion season in the not too distant future!

[Chris]

11 hours ago, Piethagoram said:

As @Elite_pie points out, ..An idea of where we need to be to compete at the top end of the league. .. Noticed from the programme how much smaller Portsmouth's squad was. Just that they have invested in picking quality players. Burgess, their #6, best centre half in the division. Claims for handball against him rightly waved away for accidental handball.

Jamal Lowe proving assured recruitment from Non League that there are good players to be found.

I have a feeling that despite the turnaround in our fortunes under Nolan's tutorialship, some unpleasant pruning of our squad still needs to be done

You'd never tell that they had the same busy schedule as us, they all looked eager and ready to perform. They had one of the most complete squads I've seen this season, which makes me surprised that we beat them the first time around. Certainly they seem to be in their element now and that made it hard for us!

15 minutes ago, PompeyFan said:

Would just like to say a massive thank you for being excellent hosts yesterday. An amazing day for our football club and you really played your part in letting supporters onto the pitch, playing Mike Oldfield's Portsmouth, and allowing the players to celebrate on the balcony of your stand. Classy from you guys - a proper football club. Wish you all the best for the rest of this year and hopefully you'll have a promotion season in the not too distant future!

It's brilliant to see, so congratulations on your promotion back to League One.

Hopefully Notts can make the use of the balcony of the Pavis Stand, it was inspired by Wembley as our former chairman hoped international games would be selected at Meadow Lane. So, it's good to see it being used and in style. Thanks for coming in good spirit and uniting football!

Really this is what the beautiful game is all about.

[Elite_pie]

30 minutes ago, PompeyFan said:

Would just like to say a massive thank you for being excellent hosts yesterday. An amazing day for our football club and you really played your part in letting supporters onto the pitch, playing Mike Oldfield's Portsmouth, and allowing the players to celebrate on the balcony of your stand. Classy from you guys - a proper football club. Wish you all the best for the rest of this year and hopefully you'll have a promotion season in the not too distant future!

I don't think it was a case of "letting" supporters on the pitch, you could see the cops didn't stand a chance of containing that many fans!  Thankfully it was all good natured celebration but you can see the problem if it was done at a club where the home fans didn't like it and decided to join in.  Your support yesterday was excellent both numerically and vocally, and I'm sure it's a day you'll remember for a long time.  I was driving home 30 minutes after the final whistle and could still hear Pompey fans celebrating in the background while our players were being interviewed on local radio.  I just hope you have another visit to Nottingham to plan next season even though it would be on the shabby side of the Trent!

[DangerousSausage]

1 hour ago, PompeyFan said:

Would just like to say a massive thank you for being excellent hosts yesterday. An amazing day for our football club and you really played your part in letting supporters onto the pitch, playing Mike Oldfield's Portsmouth, and allowing the players to celebrate on the balcony of your stand. Classy from you guys - a proper football club. Wish you all the best for the rest of this year and hopefully you'll have a promotion season in the not too distant future!

Congratulations on your promotion and thanks for the three points earlier in the season!

Glad you enjoyed your day. It was a practice run for our celebrations next season

[PompeyFan]

54 minutes ago, Elite_pie said:

I don't think it was a case of "letting" supporters on the pitch, you could see the cops didn't stand a chance of containing that many fans!  Thankfully it was all good natured celebration but you can see the problem if it was done at a club where the home fans didn't like it and decided to join in.  Your support yesterday was excellent both numerically and vocally, and I'm sure it's a day you'll remember for a long time.  I was driving home 30 minutes after the final whistle and could still hear Pompey fans celebrating in the background while our players were being interviewed on local radio.  I just hope you have another visit to Nottingham to plan next season even though it would be on the shabby side of the Trent!

True! I saw that there were a few stewards trying to trip some fans over and stop them, but they soon realised that nothing was going to hold us back and opened up the gates for the rest of us to casually walk on. The noise yesterday really was fantastic. Didn't seem like a League 2 game, for sure. A least you can now take the mantle of being the biggest club in the division!

As for your team, I think some quality additions in the summer and you could make a push. Defensively you do look quite weak. Hollis & Duffy in my view are very limited defenders, plus you've got the carthorse that is Carl Dickinson! But in attack, I think Campbell is a pretty bright player and he scored a great goal at our place, not to mention Grant's goal yesterday which was really well taken. Shola Ameobi has supposedly been in top form as well, so there's definitely real hope for you.

 

Best of luck.

[liampie]

2 hours ago, PompeyFan said:

A least you can now take the mantle of being the biggest club in the division!

respect for saying this.

thanks for visiting pon @PompeyFan

[Who r ya?? You Pies!!]

Great comments above for the after match , from PoN and @PompeyFan , congrats to Portsmouth , loved that atmosphere , it's what matchdays are about , coyp next season .

[Elite_pie]

5 hours ago, Who r ya?? You Pies!! said:

Great comments above for the after match , from PoN and @PompeyFan , congrats to Portsmouth , loved that atmosphere , it's what matchdays are about , coyp next season .

Absolutely agree with with the "it's what matchdays are about" comment.  I used the 'bring a friend' voucher to introduce my middle daughter's boyfriend to the delights of Meadow Lane, and he was amazed at the passion shown by both sets of fans.  He is a Man U fan who has only been to a couple of games at Old Trafford, but I think he was one of those who previously thought that lower league football meant watered down support.  He would be right numerically of course, but hopelessly wrong in terms of passion.  I wonder how many of the prawn sandwich Premiership brigade would stick with their club if they have suffered how we have over the past 15 years?