Portsmouth V's Exeter City EFL Trophy SF Official Match Day Thread

[IndoMike]

Disappointing result but the lads didn't let anybody down - they've done really well throughout the tournament. Great experience for them and they will have gained a lot of confidence this season.
Regarding the extra time, subconscious pressure on the ref to get the right result. He gave Pompey every chance and they took it. 50000 Pompey fans at Wembley or 6000 City fans? Not saying he deliberately cheated : just that he gave Pompey every chance.
It's a shame, but it was a fun ride for the youngsters and we've made some decent money.
Now for promotion, City

 

[Alwaysagrecian]

That was so gutting just a slightly loose ball from Jake
Who tried to put Joel Randall through on goal,
Gets cutout and 15 seconds later .....

No mention of the lack of pressure on the ball or losing the man at the far post......a tad unfair on Taylor as Randall who had put in a massive shift in didn’t or couldn’t move to the ball.
We were dead on our legs plus mentally switched off in the last 5 mins.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

Tonight reminded me of tisdale team selections in big games.

How? Out of the eleven that started, seven have started enough games to be classed as first team regulars. One us a senior pro, one is youngster who has appeared in the first team squad regularly, one is a youngster who just starting to get into the first team squad which leaves one, who was our MoM tonight with no real first team experience beyond this competition. You really ought to stick to waving your women's lib flag.

 

[east_mid]

We had the Busby Babes in the 50's,could it be Taylor's Toddlers in the 20's?

 

[denzel]

Tonight reminded me of tisdale team selections in big games.

Eh? Matt stuck with youngsters who did the business in the earlier rounds. The likes of Kite and Randall will have learnt so much by playing against a side like that. It very nearly paid off, but what matters is us finishing in the top three come April.
I have no problem with the selection tonight

 

[IndoMike]

Wouldn't have gone to Wembley anyway, boring shithole.

Yep, but it would have been minimum 80k in our pocket and probably more.

 

[Sexton Blake]

Not sure what others thought but Nicky Law was fairly anonymous and looked well off the pace to me so will be very disappointed if MT does not start with MJ on Saturday.

 

[Sexton Blake]

Galling. It doesn't matter what you might think of the competition set up at the moment, a Wembley final is a Wembley and they don't come around very often and to lose the opportunity like that us gut wrenching.
We done the job we needed to do in the first half, looked solid and restricted Pompey to not a lot without really carrying much if a threat ourselves.
Second half Pompey came at as like you would expect and slowly but surely we weathered the storm and grew into the game again without carrying to much of a threat and then Taylor rifles home. I thought that was going to be enough but Pompey equalised and you think we would have taken penalties at the start of the night. Then we get a smash and grab oggie that if the defender didn't bury Ben Seymour certainly would have.
Five minutes!!! Where the hell did that come from? And then the knife gets twisted the equaliser and twisted even further with the horrible little deflection off of Kite, our man if the match for me. Joshy if you think Ward should have saved that then you need your head testing. The pace of the shot with the deflection gave it enough loop and dip to do Ward.
As I said earlier, that goal then gave Pompey extra bit of added on time to get the winner. I think it was Kite who lost Marquis at the back post and that , as they say, was that. We deserved to get to the lottery at the end but it wasn't to be.

GH agree with all you say.....particularly with regard to the wicked deflection which gave Ward absolutely no chance.

 

[geoffwp]

Our only chance of getting to Wembley this season now gone.

I really do hope you're right as that will probably mean we've achieved automatic promotion, but in actual fact you're wrong as there is still a chance we might be in the play offs with Wembley still beckoning.

 

[Steve Moran3]

Having got this far gutting that had we got through we’d have been favourites with a great chance to win the club’s first ever trophy at Wembley. Appreciate the apathy from some - but