SkyDaz Pompey Preview

Last updated : 19 January 2006 By Darren Porter

Torquay? Ha! Cheeky upstarts have the audacity to come to the pride of the Midlands and take on the mighty Blues in their own backyard? Well there’s no doubt the scamps have been sent back down to their carrot crunching shanties by the sea with their tail between their legs after being given a true footballing lesson by one of the Premiership elite.

To give you some perception of how bad the first half was my dear mother told me that she contemplated asking for her pound back! How poor must the entertainment be that you would want your quid returned? In fairness she had a point. It reminded me of the two Turkish kids who tragically caught bird flu after playing with two dead fowl they found on the edge of a lake. How poor must the kid’s games be in Turkey that you have to try and find enjoyment with two dead animals? I guess there’s only so many games of tig and tag you can play with one other person.

The second half improved and there was a strange relief when Jarosik scored. I guess most of us thought either he or Forssell was clearly offside and the linesman’s flag was merely lost amongst the colour of the crowd. Even the players did not celebrate, normally a good sign of a goal is the all too rare scorer beaming delightedly as he makes his way to the devotees. Jarosik simply stood there and looked embarrassed that he had placed the ball in an unattended net.

The killer goal was a peach. Pennant had one of his better games and tortured the left back in the second half. At long last Forssell found a bit of space and used the pace of the ball to bullet the header home from close range. We all hope that the goal can become the catalyst for a repeat of his earlier form.

Certainly there still remains hope. Against Charlton we were damned unfortunate not to leave with a share of the spoils. Sutton made a promising start but once again our lack of goals makes us impotent and incapable of overturning a deficit.

Every match for the last few months has been the one to start our season and each one has drifted away. Games are running out now and the home fixture with Pompey is crucial. They are one of the clubs we HAVE to overhaul if we are to survive. Redknapp has got them fighting and has bolstered his squad with £7m of talent from Tottenham. This investment of Roubles shows that their chairman is not prepared to start all over again in a lower league. For him there is only one option, safety. Our own chairman has taken us to the dream land but now there has to be an element of reality in any decisions. Boosting the payroll in the face of relegation is clearly not an economical brainwave.

It is a financial dilemma. It’s easy for us fans to say ‘splash the cash’ but these guys run the club as a business and have to take the right decision from a corporate viewpoint devoid of emotion. That’s just as hard for us to take though as fans. There is no way we can even comprehend that the team we love will be relegated although we have to start accepting that it is a fair possibility.

The players have to stand up and be counted and not start planning their next club. This is their club, this is their current employer and they should be doing their damnedest to ensure that they earn the vast sums of money they are paid.

The race isn’t over yet. The last two games have shown that there is at least some fight. In truth though we would all take an embarrassing defeat to Torquay against three points from Pompey. The battle for survival starts Saturday at 3 o’clock. What a quaint kick off time. Takes me back to my youth when all this was fields.

Keep Right On. Anything can happen in the next half an hour.