v Portsmouth (a) - 13/12/25

[riverholmes]

10 minutes ago, Rover down South said:

There’s a striker in League One. Scored the winning goal midweek and bagged another two today.

His name is Harry Leonard. Got championship experience. Could be a good option on the bench to change things up. Better option than Gueye!

Why the heck did we let him go!!!

Didn't look anything great at first team level but had potential. His U21 form was excellent and to me, his lack of pace but guile suggested a Harry Kane-style slow but intelligent forward. Will be interesting to know how he is used at Posh, perhaps, with help of runners, and how he does.

[Bbrovers2288]

44 minutes ago, Gamst said:

I think they seem alright. It’s not a lack of effort that’s the issue, they’re just not good enough. It’s hard to bond with the fans when things are going badly on the pitch. 

What part of this are you enjoying?

the not good enough replacements?

the seem to be even worse than last seasons not good enoughs?

the inability to dominate a game and score a few?

the last minute collapses? 

the key ones that are injured too much? 
 

the manager that seems to want to sabotage any time we are up?

all in all, very unlikeable as I said 

[roversfan99]

Embarassing as expected. We look nailed on to be in League 1 next season.

Manager is crap, admittedly he has a piss poor squad to pick from, although apparently was key in endorsing and getting these wastes of space. But picked the wrong team, made initial subs too late and seemingly with the last 2 subs felt obliged to make all 5.

Few players deserve a special mention. De Neve would struggle in the Conference, right up there with the worst I have seen in the shirt, similar to Gueye who summed himself up with that offside at the end. 

Miller is absolute crap and probably gets away with it amidst the other shit around him. His idiocy led to the spell of pressure that led to the third. The whole defence is diabolical, McLoughlin should not be starting regularly, not very good.

Tavares beside good work in the lead to the goal again was what he always is. Laxadasical, sloppy and with a token pitiful shot like he always does.

 

[yankfan]

3 minutes ago, bigbrandjohn said:

Singling out a player, especially one playing out of position when you have other options is piss poor management. No surprises there. 
 

A few more losses and they should  be looking to pot him. That will be more expensive than fixing the pitch. 

I was furious the first time it happen to DeNeve.  The player is probably two levels above his abilities and 4 above his understanding of the game. I don’t care if he’s out of position tracking back and getting goal side is elementary school level understanding of the game. Taking the ball to the corner up one in the final minute of extra time should be understood by every professional footballer. Not him though.
 

Continuing to select him over others is something worse. As the manager having a go at the player only highlights the fact that player was brought in and you continue to think he’s good enough to play. 

[DE.]

This is a league where Preston are 3rd, and we can't beat any of the worst teams in it. 

[yankfan]

8 minutes ago, StHelensRover said:

Ismael offered to forgo transfer money in order to fix the pitch (stupid idiot). Maybe he would forgo his redundancy package if he understands the importance.

He possibly should forgo managing all together. He seems to make the selections based on what wages and transfers. Cantwell could be player/captain/manager…think of the wages we’d save! 

[Gamst]

5 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

What part of this are you enjoying?

the not good enough replacements?

the seem to be even worse than last seasons not good enoughs?

the inability to dominate a game and score a few?

the last minute collapses? 

the key ones that are injured too much? 
 

the manager that seems to want to sabotage any time we are up?

all in all, very unlikeable as I said 

I think what you are describing is poor footballers. It makes their footballing skills unlikeable but not them as people. That’s just overly harsh. 

[Tomphil2]

4 minutes ago, DE. said:

This is a league where Preston are 3rd, and we can't beat any of the worst teams in it. 

And Hemmings clan have issued another 5 million to pay their bills which might suggest they'll invest in Jan.

 

[KentExile]

25 minutes ago, riverholmes said:

Didn't look anything great at first team level but had potential. His U21 form was excellent and to me, his lack of pace but guile suggested a Harry Kane-style slow but intelligent forward. Will be interesting to know how he is used at Posh, perhaps, with help of runners, and how he does.

Has been playing as the lone forward in a 4-2-3-1 for the past 2 months

Was playing as part of a strike partnership in a 3-5-2 for the first part of the season under the previous manager

I thought I would ask in their forum how they think he is getting on

Edited 3 hours ago by KentExile

[Tomphil2]

24 minutes ago, StHelensRover said:

Ismael offered to forgo transfer money in order to fix the pitch (stupid idiot). Maybe he would forgo his redundancy package if he understands the importance.

A great little tactic to head off the sack maybe.

If in the unlikely event they did remove him it certainly wouldn't be until after the window.

[Jimmy612]

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I don't think the players we've brought in are any worse than the players that left.

The difference is we've just got a grab bag of signings with no idea how they all fit and a poor manager. 

We're playing 3-5-2 (or whatever variation you'd like to call it) with only 2 players really capable of playing WB at the club (and one of them has been a shit L/RW for his 3 years here). 

Where's Batty? Or Powell? Why did we loan out Duru? Why has that Mularkey lad dropped off the radar?

All you have to do is ask yourself which of our new signings would have been starting games for us 12 months ago. Or, which of these would be starting every single game for us now;

Travis, Dolan, Brittain, Hyam, Batth. 
 

We’ve downgraded in every single department, with the possible exception of striker, where we only really had Gueye last season (who is awful). Gudjohnsen has at least scored a few goals. 
 

We’ve also downgraded in the dugout. 
 

13th December 2024. 5th place, 19 games, 34 points. 
 

13th December 2025. 20th place, 20 games, 22 points. 

 

[yankfan]

I often think managers unfairly get praise and blame based on professional player’s performances, so think asking for a manager to be sacked is the easy solution for fans. However in this case I think it’s due. The “list” of referring decisions, throwing Carter under the bus for injuries,  the whitewashing poor performances with “advanced statistics” and now singling out a player for the same mistakes when you keep selecting said player is not the type of leadership that a side fighting relegation needs. These are all excuses to give the appearance things are not as bad as they are. Public comments should be about the side working to improve, areas of improvement, etc. feels more like a captain of a sinking ship passing blame so he can get another boat to captain. 

[Inferi]

25 minutes ago, yankfan said:

It’s true DeNeve has been shockingly bad defensively…BUT you continue to select him you dolt.  You have to drop a player that routinely makes the same costly mistakes, not elevate them to the starting XI!  
 

 

It was terrible defending by De Neve but he should be even more concerned with the piss poor overall performance against one of the worst teams in the league. You can't expect to get a result while playing like we did today.

[superniko]

I’m amazed he’s come out saying that. 

Yes, De Neve is an absolutely dross footballer, genuinely not sure he’d look good in league 1….BUT…..YOU are the one who continues to play him Ismael, so mentioning 2nd, 3rd time for mistakes… just reflects terribly on you. Bad tactical manager, and looks like a bad man manager too 

Edited 3 hours ago by superniko

[OllieNO]

33 minutes ago, yankfan said:

It’s true DeNeve has been shockingly bad defensively…BUT you continue to select him you dolt.  You have to drop a player that routinely makes the same costly mistakes, not elevate them to the starting XI!  
 

 

I’m sorry Val, your player, your squad selection. And horrible man management - publicly throwing players (however sh***t) under the bus. The whole setup is so amateurish - board of directors, CEO (whoops), manager etc etc. Lega Nazionale Dilettanti next for the lot of them.

[Bbrovers2288]

36 minutes ago, Gamst said:

I think what you are describing is poor footballers. It makes their footballing skills unlikeable but not them as people. That’s just overly harsh. 

The TEAM is unlikeable- there is nothing to like about this team, hard to get behind, often let fans down 

 

[norwichblue]

2 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

The TEAM is unlikeable- there is nothing to like about this team, hard to get behind, often let fans down 

Let’s not lose sight of the root cause of the rot.

[JPTSwindon]

Poor, poor...

Perhaps Val should delegate substitutions / tactical changes to someone else.  Between the manager and flooding we are literally chucking ourselves into League 1.

Really poor.

[wilsdenrover]

Results when we’ve scored first:

W 5

D 3

L 4

Of those 12 games, we’ve only scored further goals in 3 of them.

 

[John]

You can see why Portsmouth have been struggling. They were very poor in the first half and we were relatively comfortable going into HT.

The second half was shocking, and the worry is always that we’ll concede.

[only2garners]

To cheer everyone up Clitheroe beat York City in the FA Trophy today. They are mid table in tier 8, with York 4th in the National League. It's the equivalent of Fleetwood beating Chelsea.

[yankfan]

2 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

Results when we’ve scored first:

W 5

D 3

L 4

Of those 12 games, we’ve only scored further goals in 3 of them.

 

Thats terrible 

[JPTSwindon]

1 hour ago, Rover down South said:

There’s a striker in League One. Scored the winning goal midweek and bagged another two today.

His name is Harry Leonard. Got championship experience. Could be a good option on the bench to change things up. Better option than Gueye!

Why the heck did we let him go!!!

Yes indeed - should have been a loan, but guess they were desperate for a small transfer fee?

Suspect Gueye is on a higher wage too. 

[aletheia]

BTW For all you keen referee spotters, good job no VAR in the chumpionship -Tavares would have a red for petulance. 🙂 

[Hasta]

Just now, aletheia said:

BTW For all you keen referee spotters, good job no VAR in the chumpionship -Tavares would have a red for petulance. 🙂 

Yeah. That was stupid. Bet that doesn’t make Val’s “list”