FL2: Portsmouth vs Torquay Utd - 1 February 2014

One word - Wonderful!
We are beginning to see the fruits of better tactics and good man management just a single goal conceded in the three games in charge says it all.
No doubt Its still going to be a bumpy ride but I feel we are on the right track at long last and another five or six 1-0 wins will suite me just fine.

Anybody else of the opinion that we will finish above Exeter this season?

Brilliant result......great team effort.....onwards and upwards.......si

Neither are out of range, particularly if the new manager can keep up his average of two points per game but suspect Exeter may well be sucked into the relegation battle with things so tight in the lower half...

If Carlsberg did awaydays ....

A great day out NOT ruined by ninety minutes of football .... marvelous, isn't it?

Gagging for some football after all those home postponements, I persuaded the famous Chelston to have a day out.

We left the decision till the last minute after another check of the weather forecasts, but I picked the grand old man up from Chelston Towers at 9am.

The weather was far better than I expected and the road along the coast wasn't as bad as I remembered it.

We parked up at the Good Companion pub at 12.

Steak and chips and a pint for £9.99 and I'd downloaded a £5 voucher off the internet, so we both ate and drank for £15.

Plenty of familiar faces in the pub and we had a good chat with Sam - the man with the largest TUFC programmes collection in the world - and his mates including treetopsringwood.

A five minute stroll to the ground and we were at the away turnstile by 2.

We then had to traipse all the way to the far corner of the ground to queue up to buy a ticket to traipse back round to the turnstile to get in.

Another big bonus when we finally got in. The famous Bartondowns - nearly as famous as Chelston - was there. I didn't think he would have traveled all the way from Sheffield but had forgotten he had a TUFC supporting mate in Surrey.

I find it increasingly difficult to follow a game properly sat right back behind one goal. How lucky we are at Plainmoor to be able to stand at the side of the pitch.

What we lost in match perspective we more than made up for in atmosphere. An inspirational performance from the Yellow Army (and Sir Paul McCartney). I'm sure it was a factor in helping the lads over the finishing line.

The view wasn't helped by almost the whole game taking place at the far end. We had the better of the first half but were under the cosh for most of the second.

How good was the performance? We showed some quality in the first half and worked like Trojans in the second. Pompey skied a couple of late chances over the bar. The margin between success and failure is wafer thin. An unlucky team would have lost that game despite all the effort and despite Pompey being a somewhat limited team.

So is Chris Hargreaves a lucky manager? Maybe, but maybe you make your own luck. He does have a presence about him that almost seems to deserve the odd lucky break. I don't know if that makes any sense logically, but that is how it seems.

If we can keep up that discipline and work ethic, we deserve a few lucky breaks and we deserve to stay up.

Of the players, I thought Pearce was excellent. He seemed to grow in stature through Downes not being there. O'Connor was superb and they looked a great pairing in the heart of the defence. Labadie and Lathrope did well in midfield. Goodwin surprised me - in a good way. I thought he was a striker who would hang around in a wide position and leave his full back exposed. I couldn't have been more wrong. His work rate in the second half was phenomenal - constantly back covering Tonge. I am sure he was subbed because he had run out of gas - he couldn't be expected to keep that up. We ended with Mansell and Cruise wide in the middle 4 - giving good protection to the full backs.

A great win. Three much needed points. A great day out. Why can't football always be like this?

Met up with quite a few of the capital Gulls after - Kev, Sallie, Crooky and JB. Good to see Papalazarou on his stag weekend - more than three months before he gets married. He must be expecting one hell of a hangover. No sign of Merse - but I suspect he put perspective over atmosphere and got a better view of the game than we did.

Straight run back and home by 8.15. We had to wait until half-time in the rugby to get the full-time scores. Flicked to Talksport while we were waiting - it's like 606 but much much worse. After the scores, we blasted out a bit of Purple and Heep in preference to Stan Collymore.

The only slight downer on the day was that we didn't manage to meet up with Mr_W on his home turf. Look forward to steak night and curry night in Torquay and Newton soon mate.

I agree completely with you Jon regarding your assessment of Goodwin. I too thought his work rate was exceptional and he put in a hell of a shift. For a young front man this was wonderful to see. Epitomizes CH's clarion call when he arrived- only wanting players who are prepared to work like trojans to get us out of trouble.
Labradie, Pearce, o'connor and lathrope also exceptional but there were really no passengers out there...all were good. The same 11 should start next week.