HarvSFC

Poor Steve Cooper had no chance with him behind recruitment last summer.

One of those games where we blitz the opposition in the first half and then sit on it in the second half. Happened a couple of times earlier in the season against Leeds and Birmingham as well. Needed Bazunu in the second half, but overall that was fairly comfortable and not too many complaints. Last year you wouldn't have imagined a team of Bazunu, Bednarek, Smallbone, A. Armstrong and Adams going 21 unbeaten. But, this group are just so consistently good now. Such a turnaround. 2nd in the league, up the Saints!

What a goal. Makes it comfortable again after a brief scare. Love Downes.

We’ve turned up today. These opening 15 minutes have been very impressive.

Interesting one, another that's came from nowhere. Don't know too much about him, but think he was part of the exciting Blackburn team when they wouldn't draw matches. I guess we could and my preference would be to upgrade on Smallbone in the centre of the pitch, rather than an S. Armstrong, or Downes fill in. But I thought we'd look to replace Smallbone in the Premier League, as he does a job in this league. Aside from Stewart, due to injury we didn't do too badly with recruitment in the summer. Manning's looked good in recent games and Holgate was always signed to be a backup, so I suppose we trust the process.

Every December Portsmouth win the league and then the wheels fall off. It's lovely to see. Now 7 points off sixth Barnsley, who have two games in hand.

Feels like I say the same after every home match, but we seemingly have gone up a level since the 1-0 win over Bristol City at the end of November. We're just swatting away the opposition and they can't get close to us. It feels like this unbeaten run won't end, our bad games are draws and we've deserved every win, when usually a team flukes a win on these runs. Sheffield Wednesday and Rohl seemed to want a 1-0 defeat, with their goalkeeper continuing to time waste at 1-0 and they used the old tactic of slowing the game down and getting a mini-break with player's hitting the deck. They only really started to speed up at 2-0, but the game was done by that point and apart from a free-kick on the edge of the box I can't remember Bazunu doing much else. Not quite sure how there was only two minutes added time at half time, guess that rule's gone. I do feel sorry for the Sheffield Wednesday fans making the trip down to watch that performance. No wonder they were silent. All players today were excellent, including the subs. Adams' goal was really well taken, he showed a bit of Premier League quality, which surprised me. Really took the nerves off the rest of the match and we were relentless from there. There's a real feel good factor around St. Mary's, the team and the management again, when last season the club was so fractured with a load of mercenaries and a couple of out of touch managers. We could have gone one way or the other this season and it's so good to have football bringing joy again. We will catch Ipswich even if they did win today. 20 unbeaten, only 13 more to equal Reading's record. Up the Saints!

Reading hold the Championship record with 33 unbeaten in the league. Just a few more to go.

Hope Amo-Ameyaw impresses in this one. With Edozie and Sulemana out for the foreseeable we’re severely lacking in players who can take the opposition on. Could be time for him to make the step up.

Disappointing to draw as Norwich only really played at 0-1 and got the point they were looking for. Should have been against 10 men for much of the match also, very physical side, kicking KWP all match and fortunately only Edozie and presumably Bednarek had to go off due to injuries picked up. Edozie looks like he'll be out for a while now, will be a big miss, as Fraser struggles to make much of an impact when he's on the field earlier than 60 minutes. Edozie's also one of the few with the skills to break through a defence, otherwise we just try to pass through them time and time again, as we witnessed today. Aribo played like he had one mind on the AFCON, which considering what happened to Sarr at Spurs yesterday, okay, but he shouldn't have started. Leicester left Daka, Iheanacho and Ndidi out of their squad completely today. Don't agree with Stephens starting, but I don't think anybody does. All of Norwich's attacks seemed to come down Manning's side also, see how many times he allows the winger to put a cross in. Hopefully, now with nearly a couple of weeks until the next league game we can make a couple of early signings to help us in attack and also get the Adams situation sorted. Positives, 18 games unbeaten. 15 more to equal Reading's record and we didn't lose any points on Ipswich.

Where was Gunn?

Not sure what’s happened, but at Fulham and in his first few Liverpool appearances I thought he was very good and gutted we missed out on him at first. If he can recapture that he would be the best player in the Championship. Would be a real coup, similar to Harwood-Bellis. Only downside would be no chance of making the loan a permanent. Can’t believe Premier League sides are going to ignore him, though. A Luton, Sheffield United, or Burnley would definitely take him. Perhaps this story was fed to Romano from his agent to alert clubs to the fact that Carvalho is available this window.

On the topic of Burnley players, I forgot Obafemi was still there too. Barring 21-22 at Swansea, he hasn't really done anything.

Exciting player is Benson. Would certainly get fans off their seat. Was often Burnley’s wildcard last season to cause chaos off the bench. Forgot he existed. Free Manuel Benson?

Love Harwood-Bellis. A real coup for this level in the summer. Hopefully no chance of an Alderweireld situation repeating itself should we win promotion.

Also, shout out to Edozie. His first half performance was everything we wished Sulemana was. Kept beating their full-back for fun and put in a very good cross across goal which could have gone anywhere. Tracked back a few times too to win the ball back and an assist on the board for Alcaraz’ goal. Long may these performances from him continue. Nice to see Jos Hooiveld at half time also. Didn’t know he played with Martin at Norwich.

Plymouth came for the point and got nothing, happy days. I thought the refs were meant to be clamping down on time wasting this season, their goalkeeper spent an age on every goal kick and then you have just two minutes added on at the end of the first half and no booking for the goalkeeper. Was up there with Newcastle's gamesmanship. Feared it was going to be another Rotherham, we were dominant for the first half hour, playing some lovely football and they couldn't get the ball off us. Unfortunately, the tempo did drop after that and it went a bit slower and a bit easier for the Plymouth defence, but a bit of Premier League quality from Alcaraz unlocked them. Now we have to see what SR are made of in the transfer window in regards to KWP. He's too good for this level, but we shouldn't be selling him at any price next month and should we get promoted he should be the priority for a new contract. Will be far more expensive to replace his quality in the side. Bednarek and THB once again imperious at the back, dominated the Plymouth attack and shut down pretty much everything. The redemption of Bednarek is wonderful to continue viewing. Only complaints really are, I don't get the Stephens sub. Tonight and against Blackburn, we're bringing an attacker off for Stephens and playing three at the back. I would rather that sub went to either Dibling or Amo-Ameyaw for one of our attackers with us winning comfortably, which we were at the time and hopefully keeping the momentum on our side. A. Armstrong off for Stephens makes us a bit more cautious when, as I say we were comfortable. Feels like Neil Warnock's appearance bonus move. Also, Bazunu's monthly error. Didn't cost us tonight and hopefully that's that out of the way for a few more games. Much easier than the away game even if it was the same score line. We can't stop winning while Ipswich are drawing and Leeds are losing at the time of posting this. Up the Saints.

Downes is that colleague who phones in sick once a month.

The way we walked through Leeds in the first half at home is giving me plenty of confidence too. Will probably come back to bite me firmly on the arse, but we’re a different team to the one that lost against Leicester and Ipswich earlier in the season.

Feared after the Leeds loss earlier that things were being set up for us to drop points too. How wrong was I. Up the Saints. Automatic promotion is well in sight now.

Leicester have a few big names, if they’re going to suffer a drop in form it’ll be then. Iheanacho, Ndidi, Fatawu and Daka all going. Ipswich captain Morsy plays for Egypt. Leeds don’t have any. West Brom lose Ajayi at the back and their best player Diangana, so hopefully the divide gets a bit bigger.

The wise Nathan Jones once said that playing with 10 men helps.

Once again we’ve reverted to slow, walking football away from home after the positives of last week. Chair’s had the running of Bree so far, so could be a better matchup with KWP on that side now.

What a tragic waste of money and once again a lack of care/due diligence by those in charge of the money. The medical team who gave the green light in the summer don’t come out of this looking too great either. Three year deal, too. Pretty much two years out of the game by the time he returns. Can reword Martin’s quote to say it will be a huge bonus if he returns at a good level for us.

I'm always surprised that Adams and A. Armstrong have never clicked up top, albeit they haven't had a prolonged run up top together, but when they do play it just doesn't seem to work, like it did with Ings. On paper, you have Armstrong, a runner off the ball and a goal poacher and then Adams, whose strengths are holding the ball up and bringing others into play. Should work, but that's what has been missing from Adams' game this season, really. In the Premier League he was slightly underrated in his passing ability, but we haven't really seen it this season, possibly because he's playing the lone forward in these tactics, I don't know. Either way, I think his time at the club is nearing it's end, shame he never got that league title.