eeeee by gum.....I enjoyed that....
Despite the antics of the Portsmouth management team in its masses and their refusal to abide by the directions of the 4th official to remain within the confines of their touchline box, I have to give credit where due to DA who tactically was excellent and despite my previous concerns about negative football played an attacking game and used his substitutes very well....just a pity that he didn't bring on Connolly earlier as he had the beating of his man on every occasion and did my eyes deceive me in that Cole looked a lot more like himself showing a willingness to put in a lot more effort than of late...
I had the pleasure of a certain Mr Grimshaw sitting next to me in the second 45 and he was very impressed in the way we went about the game and felt we more than did enough to win. I'm not going to disagree with him on that....
Their were some outstanding performances from our lads but for me the MoM went rightly to Liam Shaw and Grimmy was more than surprised that we had been able to secure him on a season long loan from Celtic.
As for the Portsmouth management team I complained about their use of a coach sitting next to me in the first 30 minutes who was constantly in touch via mobile communication with his bosses in their technical area but fortunately he was told in no uncertain terms by a steward to remove himself from his position as his actions were causing a problem both to myself and others close by who were distracted from watching the game having to listen to his off field tactical advice to his colleagues in the oppositions area.
But enough of them and more about how DA deserves a huge amount of credit on this occasion from someone who has been rightly critical of his style of play in too many games.
His passion was all to clear to see both during the game and most certainly in his post match comments. Not sure I agree with him about the lack of backing by the current owners ( he was able to pay a transfer fee for Jake Taylor after all) but going forward into a next transfer window could prove rightly difficult and unless the ownership problem is sorted in the coming weeks to the owners satisfaction ( may mean the current BoD have to accept that the new owners may not be their preferred choice
) then DA will have no financial cards to play which could severely dent any chance we have of retaining our rightful place in EFL1.
Yesterday's game was for this sad old fool probably the best performance against one of the richer clubs since his arrival but the question has to be asked again that if we can put on displays like that v both Portsmouth and Derby why do we constantly struggle against teams in the current relegation battle...
Here's hoping that DA will continue to insist on his charges that attack is the best form of defense and not PLEASE return to the ultra cautious approach which to my mind clearly doesn't work and is NOT the Morecambe way of doing things that have seen us never relegated in our glorious history to date.
Well done DA and credit to you and the lads for a wonderful afternoons entertainment despite the pitiful antics of the Portsmouth management team ably assisted at times by the referee and the 4th official who was a disgrace in allowing the Portsmouth contingent to do as they pleased both inside their technical are and up and down the touchline throughout the game.