Morecambe 3 Pompey 1

[Posh]

Pompey Official have just tweeted that Josh Passley's scans have come back all clear but he is being kept in hospital overnight for observation.

That's really good to hear.

[Aal]

Thanks for letting us know...hope he recovers quickly

[Little Shrimp]

Cracking performance today, lots of very lovely passing football that's been non-existent for most of the season, but it was excellent to see we have the ability! The combination of Fleming, Wildig and Devitt seems to definitely be one to move forward with, thought they were all great, especially Fleming and Devitt. Parrish and Edwards were very solid today too, going to some tough decisions for Jim when Hughes is back to fitness! Also thought Amond and Mullin did a cracking job today.

Quick thought, I think it was 6 points we missed out on due to these missed penalties? That would put us one point off the playoffs.

[halfwayprawn]

Let's see if we can have a good end to the season and get 69pts.

[MfcChris]

Pompey centre backs played well

Are you joking? Their centre back was one of the worst players I think I have ever seen.

Where are all the Fleming haters now? RRW?

He is our best player and when he and Devitt play well, we play well. Second best home game of the season, behind the Luton game, which was also our last Saturday home win.

Parrish for captain.

[Keith]

Pompey Official have just tweeted that Josh Passley's scans have come back all clear but he is being kept in hospital overnight for observation.

Great news, thanks for sharing that. It sounds like it was pretty grim.

[John L]

Far better from Morecambe. Got it right for a change. Same EVERY week please!

[Kendalshrimp]

Great performance ! Solid at the back as usual thought edwards an paz were great today
Midfield took control for a change, Fleming was superb an my man of the match.
Two great goals from Kenyon an he handled Wallace pretty well who's wanted by big clubs apparently
Mullin an amond linked up well, hope jimbo continues with them now.

Shame we couldn't put a decent run of form together at home after Xmas or we'd of been right in the mix now in about 5th place. Hopefully continue a strong finish an get in the top 10 !

[Posh]

Pompey centre backs played well

Are you joking? Their centre back was one of the worst players I think I have ever seen.

Fair comment. Nosworthy I assume you mean, was poor. What I probably meant in retrospect was that they collectively absorbed a lot of our pressure well in open play. We cut them open a few times but couldn't get a shot away.

[Morecambe Shrimp]

Great game yesterday. From front to back I thought the contribution everyone made for each other was superb. I think Dan Ward has brought some organisation which in turn breeds confidence to the back four. Midfield were battling and challenging for every 1st and 2nd ball and looking to pass the ball and I thought this was the best I have seen us play as a team since the first month of the season. Podge and Mullin were consistently trying to get at the Portsmouth back four and it was superb to see us not play the long ball forward and concede possession like we have witnessed since Christmas. Excellent all round boys let's hope we see this continue in our remaining games.

[outsider]

I'm not Flemmo's biggst fan but credit where its due, played well yesterday. A great game to watch and a very good result. I did hear that Passley has a history of epilepsy so was glad to hear he was OK.

I was asked at H/T, "So is this how we play away?"

Was so happy that P&P upfront sent Pompy home pointless.

[marky No.1]

Can only mirror what has already been said... great team performance and straight from the off we passed it through the midfield, largely on the deck and players willing to run on to it rather than collecting it with their back to goal all the time. When Devitt is in the mood he oozes confidence and the players around him seem to join suit. Wildig has made a difference connecting play and now Fleming has joined the party , even Kenyon was given M.O.M. yesterday having had stick for a while.
Must be contract time
Jim now has the headache of sticking with the same team or considering reintroducing the Captain, Kev and Jack.
First back to back win since the summer. No meddling please Jimbo

A great day and to find Many Clouds had won the National afterwards put the icing on the cake

I'm not Flemmo's biggst fan

You sure about that

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[Aal]

Good to hear that young Pashley has been discharged and is travelling back home today...not sure the BBC needed to show the incident on the highlights

[morecambegeek]

Great performance yesterday. Really like Wildig, hope he can be signed up for next season.

Does raise questions about where such a performance at the Globe has been for the last four months.

[james456]

Great performance, really enjoyable afternoon.

Everyone put in a shift. Special mentions to Edwards who was class and Fleming who was probably my MotM. Still not completely sold on Wildig who I thought was quiet but we'll give him time. Devitt also a MotM candidate and I thought the industrious partnership of Mullin and Podge worked well.

Massive improvement on recent weeks/months and brilliant to see some entertaining, passing, winning football. Well done Jim and the lads.

[underbank]

Does raise questions about where such a performance at the Globe has been for the last four months.

We actually had a midfield! Kenyon, Wildig, Flemmo and Devitt. We also kept the formation throughout the game. People complain about our midfielders, but in many of the poor games, there've been times when there was only 1 midfielder on the pitch, and in a defensive position at that. We've sometimes had 6 defensive positions (back 5 and defensive midfielder) and 4 forwards. Goodall and Williams have barely played. Wright has been injured most of the season. I'm not sure it's fair to criticise the midfield when they've not actually been on the pitch! People say the defence is solid, which it is, but they've been consistently there, playing together, week after week, so it's no surprise that they're playing well and playing together well. I believe, we've done a great disservice to Williams in particular by not giving him anywhere near enough playing time to show what he's capable of. Fair enough if he's on the bench because Flemmo & Devitt are on the pitch as it's really those three who are competing for the attacking midfield positions, but it must have been disappointing for him to be unused when there's Mullin or Podge in midfield positions not actually achieving anything!

The recent problems (in my opinion) have been messing about too much. What with putting forwards in midfield positions in the vain hope of something good happening. Kev, Podge, Mullin and Jack need to be in the front two as they're not good enough midfielders. We also need to try to avoid changing formation mid game - there was one game where Paz was moved twice and had a total of 3 different positions in a single game, which made him and the other defenders look very nervous. Clearly fair enough due to injury if Jim has to change formation, but in normal play with routine substitutions, it's not really helpful and really does disrupt performance, as has been seen.

Given the current squad, in my opinion, we should be playing 4-4-2 (or 4-3-1-2) - let's get some consistency in midfield with at least 3 the same every game - just swap one if necessary, i.e. Goodall for Kenyon, or push Flemmo forward to replace Devitt etc. Give the midfield some real time to play together. The midfield has been under-performing, but I think the most annoying part is that we all know what they're capable of, so let's give them a real chance to prove themselves and show what they can do - just like they did on Saturday!

[halfwayprawn]

Totally agree with you especialy about Williams.

[steve mfc]

Bit late putting this on but credit where its due that was a huge improvement on recent performances, so often our strikers appear to be isolated with little option but to hold it up till help arrives or pass it backwards, but on Saturday the midfield was up in support and making runs beyond the strikers plus we still had good width with Wilson Beely and Devitt getting into the wide areas.

It was great to see so many of our players getting into the final third giving options to the man on the ball which resulted in a great attacking display, it really was entertaining, people were actually focused on the game instead of talking to their friends, they were singing because they wanted to instead of feeling like they had to, leaving the game with smiles on their face instead of complaining how boring it had been.

It has to be said that Portsmouth played their part in making it an open and entertaining game if it had been another team with a more conservative approach the the game probably wouldn't have been as good to watch, so a big well done to the team and Jim.

[Christies Child]

Totally agree with all the excellent comments about Saturday. Just hope that we can do it all over again v Burton even if it means reverting back to our usual away form tomorrow v York which assuming that the away results continue in their usual manner would be more than acceptable.

[Posh]

It's worth listening to Jim's interview on Shrimps Player. He was actually concerned at the team he put out.

Firstly "not enough height". For me that's mainly needed at the back and Paz and Ryan did excellently.

Then "no Kev". I think he's been very poor for several weeks, if not months, and Podge and Mullers worked much harder. He also encourages the long ball to his head which 70% of time goes to the opposition.

Next, "it was a young team with the oldest player 28". I understand the need for some experience, but we were quicker to the tackle, better movement and keener than we've been for months. In my view that's because no Kev, no Alan Goodall and no Andy Wright, all of whom have looked ponderous.

Hopefully we won't go back to lumping it up to an immobile Kev backed up players slow to the second ball.

[Christies Child]

When I asked Jim at the recent Fans Forum about how longer could Kevin go on, the answer was 'take a look at Drummy' and also the fitness stats show that Kevin is one of the fittest if not the fittest in the squad. From his answer I would suggest it's at least 2 more seasons. But for me, Kevin has of late performed well below his own high standards.

[Kendalshrimp]

I'd give Kev a reduced role next season. We seem to play a lot better without him I think he'd be better as an impact player now an it's time to play Mullin an amond more often with redshaw