Off The Mark

KARADAS
Aaah, I can tell this is going to be a subject that I'm just going to have to keep on coming back to. Although many of you will argue differently, he really didn't play that badly tonight. The sad part is that so many of the crowd were so blatantly waiting for him to make a mistake that it became so incredibly pathetic how he was blamed for everything. Examples? Oh, I'm full of them.

Lua balloons out a cross - silence
Karadas has a cross cut out by a defender - "F*CKING USELESS"

Robert shoots wide from distance - silence
Karadas shoots wide from distance - "GET THAT F*CKING FOREIGN C*NT OFF"

Hughes plays a pass too short - silence
Karadas plays a pass too short - "F*CKING MORON"

And so on and so forth. The tragedy is that so often (from a goal kick or a long ball forward), he would win the flick on. In an ideal world with a strike partner, the aforementioned partner would run on to it and have a go at goal. Sadly for Karadas, his striker partner is more likely to be found either in the space vacated by Yakubu (sulking on the right wing), or on the edge of our own eighteen yard box pleading Westerveld for the ball so he can try and nutmeg a Villa striker again.

What bothers me most of all though is that over the years, we've had some bad players. Terrible ones. Ones far worse than Karadas. And, worse still, we've had players who are bad AND just clearly don't give a toss; no effort or commitment. And if there's one criticism you can't label at Karadas, it's that he doesn't try. Where a lot of players would give up and hide in the centre circle, he's not afraid to have a pop from 25 yards even though he knows the crowd are on his back; not afraid to still try a tricky pass; not afraid to turn around and clap the fans in all the stands when he gets subbed despite taking a tirade of abuse from all corners. Fair play to him - there was a time when the least we expected out of our players was 110% and any skill or class was just a bonus.

Just a final thought before (I promise) I leave this one to die; just how many people have mentioend it was Karadas who flicked the ball on to LuaLua for the goal? Admittedly it was a fantastic piece of skill by the DR Congo man, but who got it to his feet in the first place?

LUALUA
Scored a nice goal. A shame about the fact that most of the time he's a whinging muppet who seems to think that he deserves the right to have the ball at his feet every time he wants it, try and take on the entire opposition team or shoot whenever he likes. My biggest complaint about him is the fact that he'll have a team mate ten yards away, but instead of actually passing the bloody thing he'll take the risk and try and run it over there himself, nine times out of ten losing possession.

But what can you do? He's one of our biggest attacking threats (when he wants to be) and without him we would've lost the game today. So frustrating to watch though, and I swear he never used to be as greedy. I just get the feeling he's thinking, "Well, if Yak could hang around and turn it on from time to time and STILL be worth £7.5m, why don't I give it a go!" If only we could get him thinking as a team player we'd be on a winner.

TACTICAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE FRATTON END

Bloody Perrin whinge etc

I'm no football expert and I would never claim to be. However, if you're drawing 1-1 against ten men at home and decide it's time to stick another man up front, what are you going to do? Logic dictates that if you want to play three up front, you're going to have to take off either a midfielder or a defender. And if you're a manager who knows that one of his players is only just coming back from a chest infection, surely it might seem like a good idea to bring him off so he isn't over-exerted?

Oh, but no. That's all wrong that is. Let's boo the substitution because we like Gary O'Neil, regardless of how it was such a blatant tactical change than anyone with half a brain could spot. I IMPLORE those of you in the Fratton End (or indeed anywhere else in the ground) who booed the change to please, please e-mail me and explain why. Was it because you like Gary O'Neil, who even by his own standards was having an average game? Or just because it wasn't the ever-popular Karadas who was substituted?

THE LEFT SIDE
Since Spurs it's been obvious that our most potent attacking weapon is the left hand side of the pitch. Vignal has impressed me more with each performance, although today was the first game where Laurent Robert really showed me that he was actually any good - so far he's just been the sulking quiet man in the corner with the occasional forty yard pop. But today he seemed composed, some great runs, good passes and stuck in at times too. Him and Vignal are linking up well which is good to see, and what's more Vignal wasn't afraid to give him French team-mate a good bollocking when he thought he wasn't up to scratch. And I know if I was in a team with Robert, I'd struggle not to have a "Lee Bowyer" moment with him every so often.

PRISKE
For a player who has only been on our books for a day and only came into Portsmouth for the first time ever this evening, it was a superb composed debut. Good on the ball, strong in the tackle and decent going forward - he also adds a fair share of height to the back line. I've got to feel sorry for Griff who has been so unlucky since coming here; whether barracked by fans, injured or suspended, he always seems to just fall out at the wrong time. He'll have a struggle on his hands winning his place back from the Danish international if he keeps up this sort of form.

VIAFARA
His best game yet in blue for me. Still struggling with his passing from time to time but you can't question his commitment. The only problem is that him and Hughes are such similar players; both ball winners and likely to forage forward on occasion, but neither really an out and out attacking midfielder. Ideally you'd only have one of Hughes and Viafara, then slot O'Neil in as the outlet next to them - but of course he's currently busy out on the right wing. With just over a week left until the end of the transfer window, a right winger would be helpful.

I'm sure I've got more to say but for the time being, I'll stick with that. Suffice to say that with a decent striker (or even a strike partnership) up front today we would've won, and that's all there is to say. We deserved three points but got one; it's a start but we can't throw chances like that away when we're playing at Fratton. Onwards and upwards though, keep the faith and all that.