Portsmouth v Rovers - Match Report

Well after sitting in some layby for over two hours last night just outside Portsmouth waiting for our bus to be fixed, we finally got home at two this morning. I'm so glad we won or else the 9 hour journey home might have been a bit too much! As for the game. The first half was a bit of a non event. Only a couple of half chances really (well nothing that I can remember) In the second half Rovers were the better team. Defensivly we were solid. I was impressed with Nelson, and Nissa also did an excellent job at left back. The first sending off we didn't see, but after someone in the crowd shouted 'Todd!!! You stupid idiot!' (or words to that effect!) we was expecting Todd to go. But he got nothing and Lua Lua reluctantly left the field. We had a couple of chances before the goal, Pedersen himself thought he'd scored but hit the crossbar. Pedersen's goal was very well taken - almost a carbon copy of his Cardiff goal. I thought Pedersen played better than against Cardiff. He was more involved in the game, and although he has a tendancy to drift upfront it seems he's also been working onthe defensive part of the game. We could have finished the game off, Pedersen and Emerton created chances but Thommo couldn't score the vital second goal. Then the board came up with 6 minutes! We could have really have done without that, (although there had been quite a few stoppages, but thats not the point!). In injury time Faye got sent off. Some man on 606 said that it was a 50-50 challenge, but it wasn't. Friedel already had the ball before Faye jumped in and was rightly sent off. Everyone played well with the exception of Tugay. I thought he had a really poor game. But apart from him, Pedersen is improving and Nelson and Mokoena look like good signings. Match report written by cn174

Portsmouth: Hislop, Stone (Taylor 20), Primus, De Zeeuw,Stefanovic, LuaLua, Faye, O'Neil, Berger, Yakubu,Kamara (Fuller 86). Subs Not Used: Ashdown, Unsworth, Hughes. Sent Off: LuaLua (51), Faye (90). Booked: O'Neil, Faye. Blackburn: Friedel, Nelsen, Todd, Mokoena, Johansson, Emerton,Tugay (Reid 76), Thompson, Pedersen, Gallagher (Jansen 74),Dickov. Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Stead, Gray. Booked: Nelsen, Mokoena, Johansson, Emerton, Tugay, Dickov. Goals: Pedersen 55. Att: 19,904. Ref: A D'Urso (Essex).

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