It was hard to catch the game on radio because the commentary was recieved via mobile phone because the lines were down at Dean Court. From what I gathered this was a game of two halves as Pompey looked a little bit off the pace in the first half with a performance that was only slightly better than that of the Cherries'. In the second half we took control and put them under a lot more pressure, with our Premiership quality shining through. Glen Johnson was said to be the outstanding player on the pitch though there was another trialist on show too, a centre back going by the name Emilio? "Berlin" also appeared again under the guise of "Manuel" this time, though he failed to do anything of note again. David Thompson also wasn't eligible to play.
All in all this game will be a confidence boost as well as a fitness boost to the lads who all got run outs, including players who might be leaving sooner rather than later (like O'Brien, Viafara and Songo'o although the latter is likely to be a loan move). Not much can be read into the result as we were playing against very inferior opposition and I do worry for the Cherries having had an awful pre-season including getting beaten 1-0 by Havant and Waterlooville; our next opponents on Monday. In truth though, we don't have any quality opposition to play now until the visit of FC Porto to Fratton Park.
In other news Stilian Petrov played the full 90 minutes in a 4-1 win for Celtic over Kilmarnock and he looked good. Whether this will tempt him to go back for him I don't know but for now the deal is dead. Apparently Sacha is in Turkey in talks with Fenerbahce to thrash out a deal for Anelka, although it's reported that the Turkish side want to keep him until after their Champions League qualifiers are over in late August. On top of this there are also rumours that Sylvain Distin won't sign a new contract at Man City and could be on his way here.
The next few days should be interesting...