Nice to know that the commercial department is ‘on the ball’ (see what I did there?).
Shame the football department is not as sharp a lot of the time.
Hopefully today, revenge for the Home Park debacle last September.
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They played us off the park for 75 mins in the away game and we still managed a draw. Anything is possible.
It’s the business end of the season and I’m now starting to feel the pressure. After just enjoying the ride earlier on, now it begins to matter.
Another win for Pompey this afternoon, and well deserved against a workman-like Wycombe side. With the chasing pack continuing to stutter and drop points, we’re now in a very, very strong position: 11 points clear of third place with just 18 points to play for. Tuesday night’s game at home to second-placed Derby (live on Sky) will be very interesting. We can afford a draw but I suspect Mousinho will go all out for a win. If he succeeds, not only is promotion a near certainty but the title would be very close. Hope I’m not putting a curse on our run in 
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We scraped through today. Plymouth can consider themselves unlucky as I thought they should have been given a penalty.
Our performance was not bad considering we played the entire match with ten men.
Why we keep playing Barnes I do not know. He can’t run, has poor control, poor in the air, too slow to tackle and spends most of his time waving his arms and arguing with the ref!
Wagner must think he’s a lucky charm and won’t risk dropping him.
One thing Wagner has managed to do is make us more resilient. Three months ago we’d have lost this game.
All the best to Plymouth they deserve to retain championship football.
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Barnes seemed a very poor signing to me and, although I have only seen highlights of all games this season, this appears to be the case as he doesn’t really feature at all.
Should have been seeing out his career in League 1 or 2 but, presumably, our remuneration package is a lot more attractive than anything available in the lower leagues.
Surely he will be gone in the summer?
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Saints started very well (comment from behind me, “ gosh we have a mobile back four” ). But after our goal we reverted to pi$$ing around at the back that has been the bugbear all season. Lost our right hand side to the Boro winger, and eventually fcuked it up completely.
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Started wrong team. Paid the price. Point ok away at Watford but we started playing too late in the game. Hopefully lesson learnt about Ampadu and Roden & shift the rest around them.
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The Mighty Whites slipped up badly tonight against Watford.
The first half was a catalogue of errors, with misplaced passes everywhere, and players looking totally confused as to the game plan.
Second half was marginally better, but I still don’t get why, at a goal down, and time running out, we insist on halting our advance into Watford’s half and revert to passing the ball across our back four.
'Ere, you lot, the goal is that way. 
As for our England striker, Patrick Bamford, I don’t think he touched the ball all night. 
A lucky draw, which we didn’t deserve.
M.O.T.
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Yes, an interesting turn around this evening.
That away 0-0 was the 1st time we’d been bossed in a game for the best part of 3 years and was quite sobering. One could not fail to have been impressed by how Parky then turned that around in the FA Cup. Today was different again.
One of the few occasions this season the team was available, settled and picked itself. The game itself was played in poor conditions and again kudos to us for simply adapting better. It was a scrappy game in many respects but with moments of real quality. Ultimately though it was a game in which we had all the luck and were again superbly marshalled.
The back 3 was flawless and I’m chuffed people elsewhere are saying young Max was MOTM. He really was. Extraordinary to think our 1st choice back 3 can’t get a look in and rightly so. Cannon and O’Connor were again great in midfield and Mullin and Palmer were a nightmare for Stags from beginning to end. The wing backs were okay. Only McClean, Arthur and Lee blotted their copy books. They were awful.
So, McClean back from suspension wipes their guy out as a taster 5 minutes in. Gets a yellow. It wasn’t a red but it was also immensely stupid and some officials would have called it red. Ditto Lee in the 2nd half. Kamikaze mode fully engaged. Several wrestlimg matches; 2 awful tackles and a 2 footed karate kick.
Big thing for me was that Max bossed Keillor Dunne. Genuinely brilliant to the extent that DKD was subbed. Max rubbed it in with arguably the best pass of our season to set up the 1st goal.
Arthur then tried to gift them a goal in the 1st half and repeated it 2nd half when he again flew out unnecessarily. Has learnt nothing. DKD goes around him and puts the ball into an empty net only to be pulled back on the basis Arthur had full control of the ball and was thus fouled. Dreadful decision. Clearly wrong. Ref later topped it giving us a penalty when the tackle was hilariously nowhere near the area. You had to feel for Stags. On top of these blatant issues their injury crisis was such they ended up with their number 9 at right back. A very bad day at the office for them but I’ll take it. For all the bad luck today the fact is they’ve not scored against us in 3 games.
Just 6 games to go.
People keep talking about experience and know how. All I see is a player who is not good enough for the championship and should retire.
I recommend listening as well as looking if you can. I’m not beung sarcastic. Your rise up the table has coincided with his return and having once heard him at the Racecourse I can say with certainty that whilst the legs may not be Championship standard the brain and mouth are Premier League. His ability to organise and motivate on the pitch is higely under-rated. He’s like an extra captain and you can’t under-estimate that.
By the time Glenn Little played briefly for us in non-leage there was next to nothing of the marauding winger left. There was just a shimmy; a pass and lots of talking and pointing. Those latter 2 things were incredible. The influence was so great we have fans who still talk about those cameos now. He would litetally tell people where to stand; where to move and he’d be right every time. Barnes is of that ilk. He’s also a goal poacher and whether or not he then gets goals is irrelevant. He occupies 2 or 3 players and is the person creeating the space for those kids you rave about.
Football is fascinating precisely because you can have fans who have watched for decades who still think the managers is stupid for not seeing what they see.
Ashley Barnes has always been marmite for fans of his clubs. Full disclosure: I loved him when he played for us at Brighton. But many didn’t, and I think that was a strong reason why he left us for Burnley. Which, in fairness , made his career.
He gets goals and will never be bullied by anyone. So really helps when you need to mix it up
Also had one of the weirdest bans ever - when the referee was jogging past him (during a Brighton game) and Barnes had a random rush of blood and just tripped him up. No niggles before, just a total random moment! Think he got about 10 games for it.
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Our rise up the table is down to Sargent and Sainz coming into the team.
Barnes is taking the place of better young players. The fans I speak to can’t believe he keeps his place. He has missed several relatively easy chances and just looks clumsy and out of place.
I can only assume Wagner thinks he’s a lucky charm.
Hopefully when Rowe comes back things will change.
That’s demonstrably not factually accurate @JohnF.
The uptick in your form started at the end of November with the return of Barnes. It continued into December when Barnes featured with Sainz but the latter was repeatedly subbed. Sargent didn’t appear until the 6th of Jan but was largely a bit part player. The only league game you lost that month? Yup, the one Barnes didn’t start.
Your worst performance in Feb? The draw with Blackburn. Who was missing from your line up? Yup, Barnes.
You can certainly bend the facts. The game we lost was at Leeds and this may be down to the fact they are a very good team rather than Barnes not starting.
As for Sargents bit part performance I’d say that nine home goals in succession is a little bit more than bit part.
In the meantime Barnes has scored six in twenty nine appearances compared to Sargent scoring fourteen in nineteen.
Norwich succeed despite Barnes, as waving your arms and arguing with the referee creates very little.
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Indeed, it “may be” but then it may not. When your 2 kids have played and Barnes hasn’t they’ve done nothing. Their nice to oook at but lightweight. Without the hod carrier you wouldn’t have the bricks to lay as a certain manager once said.
Barnes is not a goal scoring striker. At best he’s averaged 1 in 4 over his career and aged 34 that isn’t going to improve and yet he’s had a career which has involved playing at the highest level. Why might that be? What could it be that managers have seen for more than 2 decades which you have not?
Like it or not harassimg officials works. Same applies to pointing. It’s simplistic to suggest otherwise else players simply wouldn’t do it. I’ll repeat though, Barnes movement may be deceptively slow but it’s that which is creating the space for your younger players.
We have the same issue with our fans. Mullin is a spent force post lung puncture etc. Let’s distegard that he’s carried on scoring at 1 in 2. Fact is they’ve mostly piped down as soon as ge got a fit Palmer up front with him. Palmer scores 1 in 3 with us but he’s largely 1 in 4 or 5. His real work is making others follow him and creating space. He’s been magnificent since fit and against Mansfield for example he’d make tiny little runs down the wing into a position where they constantly had to decide whether a right back or midfielder picked him up. The best team in the league ended up with their number 9 at right back to occupy him. Still our idiots complain that he’s not scoring.
I think it’s fair to note you’ve not been positive about your season at all until the last 2 weeks. Try looking at what Barnes does do rather than what he doesn’t. It’ll be eye opening.
I have looked at what Barnes does and that amounts to chugging round the field waving his hands and arguing with the ref.
He can’t tackle or press because he’s too slow, he fails to control the ball on numerous occasions resulting in turnovers.
Last Friday at one point he fell on the ball and the local press stated the ref kindly gave him a free kick.
I thought he’d be a good signing but sadly it appears to be a season too many.
And yet what a remarkably decent season it’s turning out to be against months of assertions to the contrary from the moment he came into the team.
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The return of Gunn in goal has been a big factor in our improvement. Without him we gave away more silly goals than ever.
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