John Smith's PNE Fans' Panel verdict: We made bottom-placed side look like Barcelona in first half
Unlike the ships docked in the town’s Royal Navy harbour base, Saturday's visit to Portsmouth did not ‘float my boat’.
I’d believed this game was one which we could win if we played anything like we had done in the midweek game against Sunderland. However that proved to be far from the case!
I watched on with bewilderment as we effectively lost the game following a poor first half in which our whole defence seemed ‘all at sea’.
The opening 15 minutes were fairly even, with Emil Riis having a strong appeal for a penalty turned down. But after this and spurred on by a raucous home crowd, Pompey took hold of the game by the scruff of the neck.
In the first half we resorted to the modern football trend of trying to play out from the back from our own goalkicks.
We made the division’s bottom side look like Barcelona as they began to cut through our midfield like a knife through butter.
When keeper Freddie Woodman under no pressure whatsoever punched away a ball I personally believed he could have caught, it was returned with interest from the edge of the area into the bottom corner of the net for Pompey’s opening goal.
Goal number two on the stroke of half-time also came from a corner we defended like schoolboys.
After a triple half-time substitution we finally started playing some attacking football, the type the fans who have paid their hard-earned money to come and watch expect to see.
We scored early in the second half to give the fans who had made the five-hour-plus journey down, something to cheer but a second goal would not come.
The late penalty we conceded could have come straight out of the "How Not To Defend" manual and summed up our miserable day.