Peter Enckelman 5
Much talk centred on his mistake, but he failed to catch any crosses, while the punching was less than convincing. Generally a poor day for the Finn with wayward kicking also.
Tony Capaldi 5
Allowed crosses to easily and was targetted by Pompey. He doesn’t have the pace to let defenders run and must adapt his game to get tighter.
Kevin McNaughton 7.5
The tenascious Scot was excellent and nearly scored after a 60 yard run. So solid in defence but pulled up later in pain.
Glenn Loovens 7
Slipped early on but was strong and assured thereafter. Had a half chance to score but did his defensive work well and without fuss.
Roger Johnson 7
Another impressive performance as Johnson kept things tight at the back. Always a threat at set pieces, he was unfortunately the one marked by Sol Campbell each time!
Joe Ledley 7.5 M.O.M.
Reputation growing all the time, Ledley was the biggest creative threat and had the beating of Glen Johnson every time. Couldn’t get enough possession at times, but looked the most likely to produce something.
Stephen McPhail 5.5
The big pitch should suit him, but McPhail was unable to secure good possession as Pompey dominated midfield. He went missing at times and too often the ball went backwards.
Gavin Rae 6
Such a workaholic, Rae was the most available even if his use of the ball wasn’t great. Played an important part, but was outgunned in the engine room.
Peter Whittingham 5.5
Some early promise with a great run, and a superb diagonal pass. However, Whitts soon faded and couldn;t get back into the game.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink 5.5
It wasn;t pretty to watch JFH trundling round, he had no joy from the Pompey defence but wasn’t helped by the poor service. Not the big occasion for the veteran.
Paul Parry 7
Always carried a threat and David James had to be alert to sweep up on several occasions. Looked every inch the natural striker as he ran across the line to good effect. Better possession for City would have seen Parry excel further.
Substitutes:
Aaron Ramsey 6.5
A couple of early slips but he looked every inch the Premiership player in waiting. So comfortable in possession, he worried Pompey and worked well to forge a late chance.
Steve Thompson 6
Redknapp went nuts when Thommo came on, hurriedly switching his defenders. Thommo was typically aggreessive, and did win some headers but the tired legs around him couldn’t take advantage.
Trevor Sinclair
Only a few minutes for Sinclair but he wasted one excellent chance to cross.
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I totally disagree about one thing in this article – the 5.5 you’ve given JFH – 2.5 just for turning up would be more appropriate – my gloom at the result was almost relieved by pride at what we had achieved but then misery set in as over the weekend JFH (and his agent?) began spreading the word that he would be taking up ‘his option’ to stay on for another year. I thought both sides had to think another year was a good idea. i think it’s aboiut the worst thing that could happen to us. JFH has been great in the past but NOW he simply cannot contribute enough to justify selection. I hope David Jones carefully looks at the video of the match. JFH is nowadays too slow and is never given the room he needs to make a decent pass – he’s usually appealing for a foul even before he’s tackled! And he falls over. Again and again. And as David Pleat perceptively points out in ‘The Guardian’ JFH simply can’t get back to assist in mid-field defence. If JFH is still with us next season we will get no nearer promotion if he plays – he’s no fool and his immediate post-match comments, although very complimentary to the City and its supporters, I thought indicated that he knew the game was up in more ways than one! So, if he’s still with us, please can he do something else other than stumble and fumble around in the first team? And I do hope his ‘option’ isn’t at the same hugely inflated cost!
The marks seem low considering we matched a Prem team and generally did ok – that said – i cant disagree with any except to say you were nice to enckelman and hasselbaink!
Hi gtsutton, I was disappointed with Jimmy, but I went easy on him because he wasn’t exactly helped by others. He had to come short too often (and was too often lost in between strikers and midfield) and with McPhail also playing poorly, we kept knocking long balls to him (never going to beat Campbell). The performance reminded me of Kevin Campbell, but I decided I’d much rather have had Jimmy there!!!!
Don’t know what you mean by ‘he wasn’t exactly helped by others’ – you mean like little old ladies waiting to be helped over the road? Well, yes, there was something of that about him and I’m all in favour of going easy on the elderly. But when you’re that elderly and the legs simply don’t work like they used to, you shouldn’t expect to play 1st team football. He wasn’t just a passenger, he was a serious liability .. the trouble is that people expect him to do well so if/when there is something quite good everyone goes ‘aaah, our Jimmy’ and then they forget all the falling over and pathetically slow movement – and he doesn’t do well enough of the time .. so we have to stop ‘knocking long balls to him’ – but we should think it’s OK to be knocking long balls to our forwards – that’s what they’re there for! But by now we should have realised that Jim’ll only fall over when the long balls get anywhere near him .. how often on Saturday did moves break down because other players sent the ball in his direction? We don’t score goals any more – and that’s how you win matches and JFH’s occasional flashes of brilliance if defenders do give him more than a yard or so isn’t enought to justify continuing to use up one of the 11 available places on the pitch. He seems perpetually surprised that opposing defenders just take him out – he seems to think he can wiggle away from them like he used to years ago. He can’t any more and it’s time to say goodbye. We can’t just prop him up as onside as possible and as near the posts as possible so he doesn’t have to stumble too far to find something to hang onto. I fear some of us [but not enough of us] will be groaning again next season at Jimmy not quite getting it right – again. And the cost, God, the cost!!
Thought Gavin Rae was poor but Roger Johnson and Ramsey both seemed pretty useful.
Thought Joe Ledley tried too hard and was a bit gready so therefore surprised he got motm.
No shots in the second half has got to be dissappointing!
I thought you team did you well, shame you have a keeper who can’t catch anythinh though…!