Promotion ambitions very much on hold, unbeaten record bashed - and some...
Portsmouth travelled to Harrison Park - the home of Tin's The Vale side, knowing that if they won, they would be Div 5:21 champions, with a game to go. It was quite a carrot. However, a 1-2 defeat (which should've been more), was the stuff of nightmares.
The Vale & certainly Pompey's opponents next week: Upcoming Pornstars, have improved considerably since the opening few weeks of the season - the latter rising from rooted to the bottom for the first 4 games, to 3rd (now 4th) spot. Meanwhile The Vale had started brightly, wobbled (but stayed in 5th), however they had put in some quality performances of late, any lingering relegation worries had been wiped away some time ago.
Pompey manager Scott McGarvey had *not* been taken in by Tin's fairly laid-back pronouncements as to his side's ambitions for the last couple of games, and wasn't taking this fixture lightly, despite winning 4-1 at Fratton in the 2nd game of the season.
However, Archie Avalos and Claudio Tardelli did both start in the Blues engine room, needing match time, whilst two more experienced midfielders sat on the bench. Wincenty Kulyga started ahead of Carl-Göran Svensk (to keep an age balance?) whilst up front saw Ludo Iuliano partnering Janne Rundkvist. It seemed obvious from the half-time substitutions that if things were to go 'awry', then McGarvey hoped to stiffen up the midfield and at least grab a point. With a 5 point gap to Blaze Runners, it might have been enough.
The other hope lay with Upcoming Pornstars themselves. Not such a surprise package (according to McGarvey: "they just had a bad start") Peteboy1's team run of SIX successive wins was only broken by a draw with The Vale themselves. Surely there was a chance they could get a point (or better) from a (recently) misfiring Blaze Runners?
Pompey's hopes were dashed there too. With a young keeper facing a skilled free-kick taker maybe a bad combo, Blaze Runners won 3-0 away, and with the Blues loss, put themselves right back in contention by now being only 2 points (and a couple of goals) behind the blues. The short of it? Pompey *must* now win against Pornstars to be sure of not being consigned to the lottery of the play-offs*
(*do you have ANY CONCEPT of how painful it is *right now* to even write that hyphenated word! :/ - nobody mention Plymouth and late goals, OK?? Let alone that bloke - yes exactly, which one of the THREE?!?, that should've/could've been sent off in the 1st leg of our "sister" club's semi-final. But at the end of the day, yes - the Green navy port city were better, in that game).
Back to the important stuff. Tin was better tactically, make no mistake. He got right a major tactical decision, this allied with an error from McGarvey, plus an unlucky but overdue form crash - but the knockers on the Blues for this one. But the win was thoroughly deserved, even if (for a couple of minutes) it looked as if (somehow), the 10 men of Pompey were somehow going to snatch an undeserved point.
It was close at the interval, just 1 chance (for The Vale), so 0-0, and enter two subs for the Blues. But Tin got stuck into his side at the break, and they were a different side in the 2nd half, finishing with a 7-2 chance count. Ok, so Pompey were down to 10 men for the last quarter of an hour, but by then, they were already under the cosh.
Leon Dörflinger made the most of Pompey's confusion on marking (after 2 subs in 3 minutes) by getting free to head home a Haggis MacClune centre, just 8 minutes after the restart. They created more too, whilst Pompey (who only just shaded possession), huffed & puffed, but to no avail (aVale?) :d
Despite a sub each on the hour that theoretically should've strengthened the Blues and weakened the hosts, it made no difference, there looked only one winner - McGarvey had called this one all wrong tactically, and Tin very much got it right, the personnel almost became secondary. The 'coup de grace' was a nasty looking injury to Harry Drysdale (which will rule him out of the last game, and probably any play-off), & also will probably consign him to a loss of a skill bar, such is the state of his form (already bad) - he was stretchered off, but Pompey - with all 3 subs played - had to carry on with 11v10.
Finally a break (in luck) for Pompey. Young defender Igor Yadrintsev (22) had only been on the pitch 10 minutes or so, and into stoppage time, he got turned by Iuliano. Unfortunately, with the Italian chewing grass, the ref 'bought' the fall, and suddenly the blues had the lifeline of a penalty. Up stepped skipper Sunday Yakubu to slam home the spot kick (with 92 minutes showing) for 1-1. Relief...
BUT, there was one more play, and what a good one (though we didn't enjoy it that much). 2 minutes later, and with the ref checking his watch (& whistle in gob), Lourenço Mentira spotted Filipe Costa some 10 yards off his line. From 35 yards out, Mentira sent a gloriously measured chip over his head, and it dipped just under the bar. 2-1 to the Vale, and deservedly so.
Pompey's plans for the last games were in ruins. The street-market chancers who had printed up "Pompey, Div 5 Champions", left their boxes of them in the car-park, and McGarvey has to find a way to lift his side for one (or two?) cracks at getting out of this division. It was the blues first league loss of the season, but it couldn't have been much more convincing. "Ok, so I can't play that eleven next week then.." was all we could get out of a dejected, gibbering McGarvey...
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