“They said Fly to Amsterdam” (lyrics from Complete Control- my favourite Clash, song) to Sharon for a conference therefore missing the Tuesday night match v Pompey. My brother Ivan was drafted in as cover much to the disgust of my nephew Mike who is a Southampton fan, “What are you going to see the skates for?”
None of us had bothered about dinner so we grabbed a good old greasy burger and chips from the van behind “Sir Alf” before kickoff.
Sometimes you walk into the ground and the atmosphere is a bit flat and you get the vibe that you are not going to see a great game, Tuesday night had that feel. Last season’s captain David Norris, who left on a free after failing to negotiate a good enough deal, received a mixed reception from the Ipswich crowd, “One greedy bastard” and “Norris, Norris what’s the score?” after we eventually took the lead.
The match itself was very different from the title of the blog, in fact it was manager-less Portsmouth (Steve Cotterill having left to takeover at Nottingham Forest a few days earlier) who were in control for a lot of the time, and could feel a bit peeved to leave empty handed. They are a big physical side, without being dirty and created the lion’s share of chances Stockdale was kept busy and had to be on top of his game. Ibrahima Sonko, aka Mr Gadget, as it looks like his legs or neck can extend beyond the norm and he has spring loaded feet, had to be replaced by Damien Delaney in the first half after pulling up with a tight hamstring.
I had a feeling that the match would end up a goalless draw or Pompey would nick it one nil, certainly last season we would have lost a game in similar circumstances. Keith Andrews scored the only goal of the game in the 69th minute firing in second half substitute Nathan Ellington’s knock down from three yards out.
My overall feeling after the final whistle was that the better team lost, and perhaps we are making progress as a team in the fact that “we won ugly.” Sharon didn’t miss too much excitement either!
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