Best Of

Very impressed by The Dodmeister’s post match interview. Very interesting what he had talked to Humphrys about in training between Saturday and last night and how clearly delighted he was for the player, the process and the outcome. Confidence builder all round.

Loads of Simmons chat round me, people also desperate to coat Fred, Bakinson and Leahy off. Sad stuff.

Dodds giving it the Wilko Johnson across the technical area.

In fairness if he has been instructed to punt it we probably have not seen how he is with his feet . I can't remember Portsmouth doing anything other than playing out from the back last season . He got league one goalie of the season being part of that .

I’m just reserving judgment for now on ‘Full’ Back.

I thought he did really well too, but Brizzle never put us on the back foot for a sustained period which is when we would have got a better opinion of him defensively.

That said, when the opportunity arose in the middle third he looked keen to get strong tackles in on his man which I loved to see.

Young lad who I’m sure will turn out to be a good signing, but a bit soon to be saying he’s an upgrade on Captain Grimmer I feel.

I almost feel relieved if the Danes are not (yet) fit or good enough, as we already have Skura/Low and Bradley/Taylor at the CB spots and Scowen/Simons/Humphreys as a brilliant starting midfield with Leahy/Bakinson/Lowry as able backups. I know you can never have too many good players, but not having to shoehorn an extra couple in may actually give us a better sense of continuity.

I live in hope that we will see this XI before the end of the season:

Norris

Back

Low

Taylor

Harvie

Scowen

Simons

Humphreys

Sadlier

McCleary

Kone

Simons. The player we've been missing for nearly 2 months.

I voted Simons purely because that was the first time in almost 2 months we’ve really looked the part again. however, that was also due to the return of Taylor as well. He is so good at getting us up the pitch.

Those two released Scowen to do Scowen things. Humphrey’s was absolutely outstanding because he finally had a platform behind him to do what he does best.

I think the vote for Simons was because he is the final piece in the jigsaw to get us back on track.

First time I think I’ve ever been really surprised by one of these. Simons was good, yes. But Humphrey’s was absolutely outstanding

I was in the office so could only watch the match with half an eye but it sure looked to me like sexy football has returned, finally.

Interestingly Dodds seems to be entirely copying the Bloomfield template - a 433 formation, playing it out from the back, full backs bombing forward and a maestro in midfield dictating play. It's early days for Fin Back but dare I say it, he, Norris and Simons all look like upgrades on their predecessors (especially now we know Norris CAN play the simple ball out effectively) and I'm very excited by Lowry, especially as Humphreys can tire a bit and has the odd off game.

I listened to the interview on the Danes, I'm impressed by Dodds' candour there - reading between the lines I think he's pretty nonplussed by being saddled by a couple of star signings that probably aren't League One level and aren't even likely to be fit enough to play for the rest of the season. So data doesn't always get it right but I'm much more impressed by its success rate in January signings after tonight than I was at the weekend!

The outrage of being happy at winning a game!