The Cat

A very dull game. Could see why Pardew put Wotton on. At least it allowed Puncheon to play on the wing where he at least looked slightly dangerous. Both teams had 2 good chances. Davies made 2 cracking saves either side of a comedy fumble. Lallana should have scored when put through 8 yards out but managed to drag his shot past the far post and Lambert didn't quite see a ball that came through a crowd and hit him when he was unmarked 6 yards out. After seeing us play so well at Norwich it was a frustrating game. We should have concentrated on width, got the ball out wider quicker and stuck in crosses. Too many times we failed to do this and the ball got stuck in the middle of the pitch where it would randomly bounce around before someone fell over and it got hoofed off for another throw. It was actually quite comical at times. Can't remember us getting in behind the full back very often and cutting crosses back, and our midfield was slow to support the attacks; often getting into a decent area just as the ball was cleared past them. Credit to Wycombe though, they defended well and won most of the second balls. They also worked hard to hassle us out of possession on the rare occasions we strung more than 3 passes together. Oh well.

Agreed about our support. Considering Wycombe is relatively close for an away game (not much over an hour by car) it seems strange that we're not selling this out. We took loads to MK Dons for the semi final a Tuesday night for what was in the grand scheme of things a pretty unimportant fixture. If it was Reading away we'd take 2500+. It was poor on Saturday too. Is it because some fans have given up on the play offs, or is it just that everyone's going Wembley crazy and has forgotten about the league? What with Wycombe being desperate for points and needing to attack tomorrow this could easily be one of the most exciting games of the season, and it's only £18 and a quick hop up the M3 or A34. I almost fell like finishing with a Delia style "let's be 'avin you". But that would be sad, so I won't.

Can't you just be happy you're going? In the great scheme of things it doesn't really matter that much where you sit.

Just phoned Wycombe as no way am I getting through to Saints on the phone today with everyone going mental for JPT tickets. They will have cash sales on the day for away fans as long as we haven't sold our full allocation.

Don't need to. We'll have a squad with enough quality to get automatic promotion, win the JPT and have good cup runs. If we can do all that there's no point giving any game a 'wide berth'. It's also insulting to the paying fans.

I was quite critical after seeing him at Millwall and Exeter, but to be fair he played alright today. Seemed well up for it against his old team. Point to prove I guess.

We were superb today. Didn't look like a red card but we were outplaying them with 11 v 11 anyway. Puncheon really is class. Pity he didn't score when one on one as his play deserved a goal. Aside from the goals, Barnard was excellent at defending from the front. The whole team were extremely solid and limited Norwich to long range shots and crosses from deep. Can only remember Davis having to make 2 real saves, one of which he tipped onto the bar being top draw. Fonte and Jaidi had Holt in their pocket and reduced him to some amusing stroppy outbursts a la St Mary's in the JPT. Amazing pies too.

Hopefully a good game as both teams will be going for the win, and what with the trains all being wonky we deserve to see a decent 90 minutes for making the extra effort to get there from Southampton. Sadly I think they'll be too good for us, hoping Jaidi plays alongside Fonte to use their experience in combating Holt. Hammond's gonna have his work cut out with Hoolahan too. 3-2 to them, but we'll always be playing catch up.

This

I saw Pompey fan catch a coin that was thrown over from Block 2. Probably about 2 weeks wages for him. He did look quite chuffed when he caught it.

I was in the Itchen and it was pretty good. Northam sounded loud but the songs were all a bit dull. With 5 minutes to go some chap behind me said "if we win this are we in the final?"

My ticket hasn't arrived either. I rang up yesterday and was told to call back today if still hasn't come and they'll arrange for it to be picked up from Exeter's ticket office before the game.

I've been to the last 7. We're 13-7 up on aggregate from the games I've seen, so hoping we don't lose 7-0.

It is. Another operation is needed.

Quality from the club.

Can it be a charity please. We don't need to whore ourselves out to some faceless corporate group who have no links to the club other than trying to extend their brand image on the back of our future success. I might even buy a shirt then. No way am I walking round advertising a company on the front of a shirt which has cost £40 or so.

Seaborne looked solid, but his distribution needs some work. Fonte and Jaidi together will allow us to play a lot more football. Encouraged by the fact we started with 2 wingers, and would like to see this more. Enjoyed watching Antonio try his hardest while everyone else was too predictable until Papa came on and transformed the game. Stockport were beyond poor although they worked hard and stuck to their game plan well. They were wasting time within the first minute. Missed Lallana loads. You often don't notice just how much impact a player has on the team until they don't play.

I appear to have bought 4 Pompey tickets with only 2 season tickets. Selected them online as normal. Went through to the last page but before clicking to confirm decided I'd better check my bank account in a different tab to make sure I'd been paid. Went back to confirm but when I clicked to do this a pop up box appeared telling me one of the seats had been taken. Went back in and did it again. Got offered 2 seats next to the previous ones I'd selected and proceeded without any problem. Then checked my account history and found 2 orders had been created, both for 2 tickets. Now waiting to see how many tickets turn up and how much has been debited from my account.

We should raid their youth set up. Sure I read a while back that they had a couple of decent nippers.

I like these rumours. Watched a fair bit of non league and there's some decent players out there aged 18-23. Most of them would have been released from an Academy of a League team and dropped down a few divisions. Chris Smalling was at Millwall before being released. 3 years ago he joined Maidstone United in the Ryman Premier. Look where he is now. Sounds like the scouting network is starting to bear some fruit. It's an area that's needed improvement for a long while. Very encouraging.

Just bought mine in Block 2.

We're clearly too good to go down, it's not even an issue as far as I'm concerned.

If, or when, we sign another midfielder I don't think we'll have any problems playing 4-4-2. Also think we'll see 4-2-3-1 at times, especially as it frees up Lallana to play in the middle and get on the ball more. We were much better like this after half time yesterday. Once the new players are in and the squad has had time to be organised in training we'll have more flexibility and the option to play consistently well in a number of formations.

Maybe the fans who complained to the Police weren't the same fans that were giving it out. Just a thought.

One Lee Barnard, there's only one Lee Barnard One Leeee Baaarnard There's only one Lee Barnard. Original, yet catchy.