Saint_clark

Their keeper looks a bit of a lump.

Means there's space for them to exploit somewhere though. Need to be careful.

See penalties all the time for off the ball fouls.

And right on cue, Baz does that. Think that's a penalty personally.

Great play. Nice to see us play the direct balls both over the top and through the defence. Good save Baz just after as well.

And a shield to match, sadly.

Not sure, looks like A. Armstrong has a free role to go where he wants.

Annoying really, guy was never given a chance. It's a joke.

Birmingham struggling to get hold of it. Lots of Saints threat in the box so far.

Thought that could have been a pen for the challenge on Smallbone. Lots of direct passing over the top so far. Watch us get a 1-0 lead and then revert to Martins preferred style of play, throwing it away.

Pompey fans, nobody at the club wants him to fail. If his style of play wins us games, great.

KWP playing right wing so far.

Early kick off on Sky mi amigo.

Harsh on Ralph, he kept himself trim.

Saints graduate and fan up top, guaranteed a goal.

No, but i've said we should give him a go and with Manning back it's the right decision to keep Bree at left back. Also the right decision to put Alcaraz, Sulemana and S. Armstrong all back in.

Patience! Get the performances right and with enough time and/or relegations, we'll start winning games.

This team has literally never played together before.

Excellent, we can turn a profit!

If Charles hadn't put in such an abysmal performance last time out i'd agree. As it is Smallbone is the right choice. I think CM is definitely an area to look to upgrade in January.

Hold onto your hats everyone. I agree 100% with the team he's picked. Good. Job. Russell. Now win the game.

Team news in 5 minutes or at 12?

You're right, that's just jogged my memory. He scored it down the Chapel end on the break.

Fully expecting him to be completely fluent in Russball by the time he's fit and not needing any time for gelling or adjusting to it at all.

He was undroppable until Harry left, played almost every minute of every game until the change in manager. Only scored 3 goals until march (also had a loan spell at Ipswich where he scored 2 goals in 3 games, can't remember if he was recalled or it was only for a month) then scored 6 in 6 in the final run in of the season. I distinctly remember him scoring at home to Millwall, and shouting "f*ck off" at the Saints fans - he'd already had enough of us. Weird season really, looking back at it. 9 draws in the first 15 games and only 2 defeats. Even after Burley came in we were in danger of relegation until Fuller came back, his return to the team led to 5 wins in 6 games and a rise from 18th to 12th - we were 20th the game before he came back.