A thoroughly deserved victory for Rovers. The only sour note today was the injury to the young centre back from Hull. I could hear the crack when he collided with Danny Holmes from twenty yards away, and I hope it is not a leg break, an awful injury for a young player to sustain.
The line up was largely as I had expected, save for James Rowe coming back into midfield, and unlike last week we started the game really brightly and had Pompey on the back foot from the off. A lot of pressure high up the pitch resulted in a couple of corners, the second of which we scored from, with scrappy defending from Portsmouth of the kind that we have generally been guilty of ourselves from set plays this season. For the rest of the half I thought Portsmouth had a decent amount of possession but rarely troubled us, and I only remember Fonners having to make one proper save, a good one-handed effort. We looked more dangerous throughout, with the pace and energy of Fenelon in particular causing them a lot of problems. Our half time lead was deserved.
At the start of the second half we again started the better side and Portsmouth's equaliser came against the run of play. Not for the first time this season luck deserted us, with Wallace's shot taking a hefty deflection to beat Fonners; I was right behind the shot and I think Fon would have saved the effort to his right had it not been diverted. Full credit to the players for their response to this setback, however. Portsmouth had their best spell of the game in the 5-10 minutes that followed, but we dug in and defended manfully to keep the scores level and gradually got back on the front foot. James Rowe justified his selection with a quality finish for the second goal and Fenelon did brilliantly to pick out Ridehalgh in the lead up to the penalty.
All the players worked incredibly hard today, with Jennings, Ihiekwe and Holmes playing particularly well. However, Fenelon was the difference today for me. His movement and willingness to run in behind is something we have lacked all season, as is his preparedness to shoot as soon as he gets sight of goal in the eighteen yard box. He is also decent technically and linked the play very well at times.
Hopefully this victory, against a team containing a lot of decent individuals, will lift the confidence of the players and silence some of the cynics. Onwards and upwards under Micky.