TOPIC: Carlisle v Pompey Match Thread

Close to a full-strength team.

Gillespie, Atkinson, Raynes, Ellis, Miller, Dicker, Joyce, Kennedy, Grainger, Gilliead, Ibehre
Subs: Hanford, Wyke, Hery, Brough, Sweeney, Asamoah, McQueen

Six changes from last weekend, Grainger for Brough, Raynes for McQueen, Joyce for Sweeney, Kennedy for Balanta, Gilliead for Thompson and Ibehre for Asamoah.

Carlisle 1 Portsmouth 3 Att: 5021 (798 Portsmouth)

Sounds like Pompey with all the pressure so far

1-0 Grainger Pen.44 min
HT 1-0
1 shot on goal
No corners
Few fouls
38 % of possession.

Great time to score against the run of play! Dressing room'll be buzzing!

Cayambe wrote:
But how many games can we all remember when we batter the opposition for 90 mins and lose to 1 shot on target......frankly I could care less, as long as we win...

Oldhamblue wrote: Or, as the coach of Chile put it well after they lost to Uruguay mid week
"One night, I went to a bar, I was with a woman. We talked all night. We laughed, we flirted, I paid for several drinks of hers.
At around 5am, a guy came in, grabbed her by the arm and took her to the bathroom. He made love to her and she left with him. That doesn’t matter, because I had most of the possession on that night."

I think the Chile coach was watching a different game from me!

2 goals conceded in 2 minutes - same old defensive frailties

5,503 - a lot wont be back for the rest of the season - mid table team with worst defence in the league.

2-2 get in Danny Grainger

Sounds like a fantastic goal

DG seems to be following a strikingly similar career path at Carlisle to Ian Harte. Vilified for his lack of pace and other shortcomings during his early days followed by a gradual winning over of the fans over, becoming a strong leader on the pitch and now scoring for fun.

Absolutely pathetic performance. Set up wrong again today from start and as if we were playing away. Dragged out the ditch again at the depth.

Dazzyblue wrote:
Seen a few "absolutely pathetic" performances at BP over the years but that wasn't one of them. Well played Danny Grainger.

We need to take the initiative at home Ibhere and
Asamoah should have played together.
It's well overdue that we click in front of goal and hammer someone. Another two points wasted.

What is costing us dear is this method of trying to play our way out of defence, how many times have we been caught, robbed of the ball and conceded a goal. We're not good enough to play our way out of trouble.

This "due to give someone a hammering" line is wearing a bit thin. We were second best in virtually every department amd were incredibly fortunate to get a point. 3-0 wouldn't have flattered Portsmouth today.

Dodgy penalty for us - not saying ref was wrong but often if it's a close one they dont get given then they had one that was a metre inside the box and ref gives free kick.

One up front was shambolic - especially with the three midfielders selected and Jabo was totally isolated.

Can't believe we stole a point.

Jumpforfun wrote:
Apart from the first ten minutes and the goals Portsmouth flattered to deceive, plenty of possession but no end product. Setting up like an away team at home was bad though.

Jumpforfun wrote:
Was Pattison running the line ?

How many goals has Joyce given away this season with his faffing about on the edge of our penalty area? He should have stayed suspended.

im sure some people go to a different game than me on here. Today we were outplayed, out muscled and out fought. 2nd best to the ball with no urgency at all. All graingers goal has done is paper over the cracks of a very poor performance. As I mentioned to set up that defensively and play one upfront is shocking. If people are happy to go and watch that then more fool them.

Just shows how we all see a different game. I thought they were excellent first half and we couldn't cope with it other than defend like we did against Liverpool.
Pompey deserved the lead and got it albeit through a slip from Ellis who was generally very good.
We grew into the game with some good football and grit and ended it worth a beauty.
I thought it was a very good game to watch and a fab ending.

Well we were well outclassed first half but without Pompey actually creating a huge number of chances- I would have been furious with their lack of chances first half if I had been one of their fans. Our penalty was very fortunate though.

Second half much more even,apart from the 10 minute spell where they scored. Though we looked quite good and relatively comfortable but still lacked any teeth until Derek and Charlie came on.

Thought it was going to peter out at 2-1 until Danny launched his Scud missile- class from him and worth the 94 minute wait.

Only complaint really that such a class goal only earned us a single point.

Onwards and upwards.

What was the crack with their bench ? you would have thought they had won the euromillions the way they celebrated both goals goading the paddock like that.

Just seen the goal on sky sports -- can I vote without having twitter?

Bruntonpete has summarised my take on the game. Really good watch and great way to finish. Stand out performers were Dicker who dictated most of our play and rarely wasted a pass and Atkinson who's last ditch block stopped them making it 3-1 a minute before Graingers rocket.

PADDOCK wrote:
Dicker - is too relaxed on the ball at times and gets it taken off his toe - he did today but also did some good stuff as well.

Well played Danny Grainger as well - for playing in a too advanced roll and looking like a fish out of water he was deffo our saviour.

Arragorn wrote:
Don`t you mean Dicker

Contained a very strong Portsmouth side for a very long time. Don't think I'd have changed anything to he honest.. Was a case of containment, personally thought Curle was able to hide our weakest areas and ended the game with a point. Brilliant result. Unfortunately, there's too many fans like Dazzyblue.

We were played off the park in the first half and at times looked totally clueless.

Not a great performance, deserved to lose but any point is a good point when you're totally dominated in a match.

I can't be arsed to check, but I think I'm right in saying that we haven't lost back to back league games this season. That's a good sign IMO, it shows that this team can react quickly and positively off the back of a defeat. Last season one defeat seemed to be followed by 2 or 3.

Completely outplayed for most of the game, they looked a very good team. They didn't threaten a huge amount but our midfield just couldn't cope - felt like we needed to get rid of one of our two stoppers and bring on someone who hassles more to get in their faces.

Grainger had one of those games when people get on his back, sometimes justifiably so and sometimes not.

Miller's distribution was poor compared to what it has been, he was quite poor.

The 3 at the back did well to restrict them for most of the game since it felt like a game of attack v defence, frustrating slip from Ellis.

Dicker was my mom, played some really neat stuff. Gets caught overdoing it sometimes, mind.

Kennedy was busy as usual, he's a big asset when he's in the middle.

Gilliead was poor until the last 20 minutes and his play didn't help the team's shape. Often found himself drifting out to the right and leaving Jabo very isolated. When he actually got shifted to the right he got a lot more joy.

Jabo was very rusty, a lot wasn't coming off for him. Did much better not long before he was taken off and nice play leading up to the goal. We could do with him back on form soon.

A game we didn't deserve anything from, fantastic goal at the end to nick a point.

Due to work commitments this was my first game this season and i was looking forward to what i believed was an improving team.
So ended up being very unimpessed and as i was walking back up Warwick rd I wondered when or if I should bother rearranging my work life to watch such an unambitious rubbish.
The only plus points in a largely disappointing afternoon was that whatever you think of the set up, the team stick to it without deviation and its definately Keith Curles team. After Pompey took the lead the shackles came off a bit and we finally started causing them some problems.
I'm generally not a whinger but I have to say it was pretty dismal to watch Pompey trying to dismantle us for most of the game and its only eases it slightly that we managed to salvage a point from a game we deserved nothing from.