Chez

Come on lovren

Baines looking rusty to me. Get after him

Felt pretty even to me. I worry about their threat out wide in the second half and we need to continue to nullify lukaku, but we've got between the lines a few times and pose a slight threat.

Cork is playing well.

So far so good. It's when the game opens up a little he will present a greater threat.

Lambert killed us there

Not sure we have won a game in the prem (since we returned) without Morgan. Just saying like.

could not agree more. The lower the better. No doubt the `owners' will point to having their hands tied by the debt agreement, but they will have to look at their own recruitment decisions and accept responsibility, even if they were hampered by only having two players on the books. The 66-1 relegation odds look pretty good at the moment...nice.

the current skate training ground is at the Furze Lane Portsmouth University campus sports facilities, which recently had a new astro turf pitch installed.

yeah cos 600 mile round trips are exactly the sort of thing jonny come lately fans do.

I especially like the floated ball out to Clyne standing on the sideline that is measured perfectly so that lands on his head just as some monster come flying in to win the header. I call it the aerial hospital ball. Gazza has it down to a fine art.

Four forced changes is one thing, but we made 11 changes for the league cup games. Against league 2 teams that might be ok, but championship sides,especially one playing very well deserve more respect. It's not necessarily that squad players are not good enough, but teams play well because players play together, gelling, forming partnerships, patterns of play, understanding etc. 11 slightly worse players playing as a unit for the first time in weeks leads to difficulty. I see no reason why our first team should not start against burnley. Saying you have put out a team to win is very different from putting out your best team. I prefer the latter. The sooner we match the skates 4 trophies the better.

Can't stand Robbie `I want to move closer to my family' Savage, but he is spot on when saying United should buy Shaw and Lallana. Morgan and Lovren would be ideal also, but those two don't show up on highlights programmes so it will probably take Savage a few more years before he mentions them. Not sure why anyone gets hot under the collar when a pundit suggests a bigger side would improve if they signed a player from x or y club.

could not agree more. Add the 7 out of 10 Davis into the mix and we aren't too badly off in the middle.

VW does commit fouls and I'm amazed how few bookings he gets, but nothing I have seen so far has been anywhere near as reckless as some of the poor tackles Cattermole has put in over the last few years. Reputation may go before him, but he earned that reputation. I don't think VW is anywhere near to earning that sort of rep.

Not sure I understand your post or your humour. Why will we get relegated if we try to reach the cup final?

How about we just put out our strongest side each round and see where that takes us? Throwing the towel in because we might get Man City away in the next round seems crazy to me. No reason why we can't get to the cup final AND continue to do well in the league. How much of a negative effect did the 05 cup run have on our league position? Best Prem finish as I recall.

`Cork is better than Wanyama' - that kind of post could well bite you on the bum at some point in the future, so I'm not going to make it here, but I do think Poch has got it totally wrong up to now when it comes to Cork's selection. I probably wouldn't have started Cork, especially as Wanyama started very well at WBA and by and large has continued that form (there have been some poor showing I might add), but there have been a lot of times when we have taken a midfielder off and Cork would have been the ideal replacement. Quite frankly he has been ignored by Poch, which must have been very hard to take considering he was our player of the season (in my eyes, if not the majority) last time out. Perhaps now after a decent showing from Cork against a formidable midfield, he won't have any concerns about bringing him on. I said before the game that Cork would do fine and like Jos he hasn't disappointed. In Davis, Jos, Chambers and Cork we have some decent players in reserve. Maybe not world beaters, but good enough to hold there own until our first string get fit again.

Hope we really try to win this trophy. Other than the finance officer, who in a year or so's time will really care if we finished 7th or 15th? I know we all would like to think that this side will stick together for the next 10 years, but it might just be that it doesn't and this turns out to be the best team we will see for a while, so lets bloody go all out and win it.

The key change was in 89. Bob Higgins, the person responsible for signing and developing the Wallace brothers, Shearer etc. left the club under a cloud (Merrington looked after the YTS guys). After he departed (taking Jamie Cureton and Darren Eadie with him) the people brought in to run the youth (and I'm talking 10-16 year old's) development scheme were no where near as competent. Lew Chatterly amongst them didn't know what they were doing IMO preferring physically bigger players (rather than more skillful players with greater potential) and failing to nurture character as well as talent. There was a lot of change of personnel at that time and the quality of player brought through in the subsequent years was miles off where it once was. Lowe made a huge difference in getting our youth scheme back on track because he provided the right levels of finance and also brought in the right staff to look after the academy.

must have missed those. For me he mostly he stands around waiting for the ball to come to him. That might be exactly what Poch wants him to do, who knows.

I'm a massive fan of Cork and think Poch has missed a trick by overlooking him countless times when he would have been the best sub to bring on. However, last night he was certainly below par, with quite a few misplaced and aimless passes. Hardly surprising though, considering how little game time he has had this season. Once he finds his feet and gets up to speed he will be fine. He was sensational last season and he won't have come a bad player overnight. If Wanyama is injured, what a great player to have in reserve.

I didn't think he was at fault with any of the goals last night, but his distribution at times was woeful. The floated passes out to the touchline to the likes of Clyne are terrible balls. By the time they get to the player the opposition can get a cross and turn them into hospital balls. A couple were head height. What is Clyne going to do with them? In the second half he did it again, only this time falling short. I honestly don't know what he is trying to do here, but it doesn't work. Other than that it's very difficult to comment on whether he has improved as he had **** all to do.

yes.

http://m.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/pompey-unable-to-iron-out-woes-1-5703037