Portsmouth put out a strong team with at least five first team squad players, including Traore, Lauren and Nugent.
Portsmouth 2-1 Derby
Derby’s team consisted mostly of Academy players along with Malcolm and Camara.
Portsmouth scored twice and the Derby pulled one back, with another being kicked off the line. In truth, the quality shown by Pompey (and watched by Harry Redknapp and Joe Jordan) was at times too much for the youngsters.
But I was impressed with the display – these are our future players (a few of them anyway) and they worked hard and competed as well as they could. And they played some assured football at times instead of kicking it wildly anywhere.
But for me, I think I understand why Bob Malcolm hasn’t been able to hack it in the first team. He is a neat and tidy player, but doesn’t tackle, doesn’t seem to be able to sniff out danger as Seth lad could, or even dictate the play. As the elder statesman of the team, he should be making himself available for all the passes so that he can boss the midfield, but he doesn’t. At times he is ambling along instead of organising the team so when attacks break down, the team is ready for the breakaway. Or organising the team so he can make killer passes but he doesn’t do that either. In fairness to Billy, he must have seemed an improvement on what we had at the time but for me, a certainty for the exit door either in January or before.
If I hadn’t known Camara was an established pro, I would have thought he was an academy player. Keen, enthusiastic but not too much class or assurance on the ball. Another candidate for a ‘Dear John’ letter before too long.
What of the Portsmouth players? There has been much talk of Nugent coming here. On this performance, I’d have to say – please no – not him. Another Macken in my opinion, ball control not great, hard working, not much flair (it was noticeable that he couldn’t get the better of our own Academy defenders) The acid test has to be – is he better than what we have got and my answer would be no. Miller, Earnshaw, Barnes are all better than him. Howard isn’t better but he poses an aerial threat which Nugent doesn’t. Harry doesn’t hang about when he gets rid of people and I expect Nugent to be on his way soon but not to PP please.
For me, the best of the Portsmouth players was Lauren as you might expect – cultured and always had time on the ball. If he came here, I wouldn’t quibble – he’d be an improvement to the squad.
As for our own Academy players – the most assured are Jason Beardsley (as you might expect), Mitch Henson, while Paris Simmons has that little bit of skill that can unlock defences. Those are the people to look out for in my opinion.
But once again this reinforced my opinion that we made a huge mistake in disposing of the reserves when the three dorks were here – as we are bottom at the moment in contrast to those days when we were never out of the top three. It will take time to build up again, but I predict that if we can hold our nerve and keep playing youngsters, rather than established pros in need of match fitness, we can start developing some first team squad members before too long.