Saturday, April 15, 2006
Portsmouth 1 Boro 0
Back to Fratton Park for the Yak and a game that was ten times more essential for them to win than us. Pompey have done miracles in recent weeks to put together a string of wins and draws to drag themselves out of the relegation zone and todays narrow win was enough to build a gap between them and the two midlands sides whose form is nowhere near as good. MaClaren made use of the squad to give starts to Brad Jones, Andrew Taylor and Matthew Bates and to give another youngster a chance later on in the shape of David Wheater. Altogether six players from the win against Charlton were rested, wisely.There were chances to clinch this one without too much effort in the first half, with Yakubu, understandably looking sharp against his old team. Both keepers were mostly redundant, however, and it took a bit of above average skill from Gary O'Neill, one of their better talents on the day, to win it. Jones, who had had a good game deputising for Mark Schwarzer up to that point, was blameless really and takes no shame from conceding. Going frorward in an effort to get back into it we looked in third gear until very late on when a chance fell to Wheater at the back post, missed by inches to make it a memorable day for him. Full time and Boro remain on 40 points in 14th place.
Next up: the FA cup dress rehearsal at the Riverside, as West Ham come up north to see what we are made of! You can bet the general effort will go up a notch or two as we strive to show them who's boss and strike the fear of God into them. Following two league defeats I feel it is important that we win this one to stay in the habit of success - we need to get the balance right and not risk too many key players. This schedule is intense and next Thursday and Sunday are the important ones...
My MOTM: Impressed by Brad Jones and Andrew Taylor who can share a weakly contested prize.
