02/01/06: Matchday #21: Blackburn Rovers 2 Pompey 1
Those geniouses at Sky decided to make this game a 7:35pm kick off meaning only a small band of Pompey fans made the long trip up to Lancashire. They would have liked what they saw when Matthew Taylor scored a sublime free kick in the first five minutes of the game but then that joy wouldn't last long as Morten Gamst Pedersen would score a carbon copy of Taylor's goal almost instantly. The game turned into a battle but Rovers would get the win when one of Pompeys most hated players; Paul Dickov would capitalise on some slack defending and goalkeeping to poach a winner and add another one to put under the "L" column in the Premiership table for Pompey. Not the best way to celebrate the new year eh?
Pompey would soon confirm the new investor to be Alexandre Gaydamak and he would become joint owner of the club along with Milan Mandaric. This news sent a buzz around Portsmouth as with this new investment we could look forward to a bright future. However we still had to get out of trouble this season...
07/01/06: FA Cup Round 3: Ipswich Town 0 Pompey 1
The FA Cup third round gave us a trip to Portman Road against an Ipswich side who were languishing in mid-table in the Championship after selling all their best players in the summer. Some people had marked this down as a potential upset result but Dario Silva would score the only goal of a dire game to put us through. This game will mainly be remembered for Lua Lua forgetting how to pass and a dodgy linesman in what was a very unconvincing performance by Pompey but at least we were in the draw for the 4th round. Shame we had to draw Liverpool though.
14/01/06: Matchday #22: Pompey 0 Everton 1
Before this game would take place, Pompey would unveil many new signings. Emanuel Olisadebe (who signed before the FA Cup game), Pedro Mendes, Sean Davis, Noe Pamarot and new club record signing Benjani Mwaruwari. All of these players would see action in this home game. Not happy with having the "fluke win" tables turned on them previously in the season, Everton came down to Fratton Park with strong intent to regain their "jammy" crown and did just that as a Leon Osman deflected shot gave Everton the win (that goal would later be "credited" to Andy O'Brien). The new signings gave mixed impressions with the "lack of fitness" and "needs time to settle" tags already being branded on these new players. Another defeat then, but the worst was yet to come...
21/01/06: Matchday #23: Birmingham City 5 Pompey 0
Nightmare. Absolute Nightmare.
I rarely find excuses to get completely bladdered being the sensible guy I am however "getting absolutely thrashed by one of your relegation rivals" is definately a reason to drink myself out of depression in attempt to forget about this debacle. In this game the writing was on the wall from the start with Jarosik getting an early goal and then Jermaine Pennant would make it 2-0 before half time. Matthew Upson would then make sure of victory by adding a third and to add further insult to injury, former Pompey target Mikael Forssell would score a penalty after being needlessly tripped by Pamarot and then when you thought it couldn't get any worse David Dunn added a fifth to ultimately compound the misery of every single Pompey fan. Woeful finishing and playschool defending would contribute to this result more than anything and after that embarassing display optimism was a feeling seemingly banned from Portsmouth. Looking back on this result, it makes our escape from relegation even more astounding considering how awful this match was for us.
29/01/06: FA Cup Round 4: Pompey 1 Liverpool 2
The FA Cup provided a break in a bleak league campaign as Liverpool made the trip to Fratton Park for this Sunday evening game. Dean Kiely had signed for Portsmouth prior to this game and made his debut in what was a much improved performance against a side aiming for the top two in the league. Liverpool would once again get a dodgy penalty against us when Stefanovic was penalised for handball in the box despite the ball actually bouncing up and hitting the hand, something Dejan could do nothing about. Gerrard scored to put Liverpool in front and soon after John Arne Riise would find himself with acres of space down the left as he rocketed a shot into the corner to double the merseysiders' lead. Jan Kromkamp dived to be tagged boo boy of the match and Sean Davis got his first goal for the club in the second half but we couldn't find an equaliser. However this was a much better performance as previously stated and something to cling on to going into February.
A torrid January ended with a trio of loan signings. Wayne Routledge, Ognjen Koroman and Andres D'Alessandro joined the relegation battle with the latter having a tremendous impact on the team. Here's hoping we do sign him on a permanent deal. Koroman has now been returned however along with Karadas. Westerveld went on emergency loan to Everton in January but has now also been released. Vincent Pericard has also ben released perhaps to some suprise after a loan spell at Plymouth. Other players to have left the club now include Aliou Cisse, Andrea Guatelli, Gary Silk and Liam Horsted. John Viafara joined Sociedad in January and I also expect him to leave permanently.
That's January wrapped up, February will be just as depressing!
Premiership Table After Matchday #23
15th: Aston Villa: 26pts
16th: West Brom: 22pts
17th: Middlesbrough: 22pts
18th: Birmingham: 19pts
19th: Portsmouth: 17pts
20th: Sunderland: 9pts