Football is a results business and I am a big fan of winning even if the football is poor, but I also like to look at the performance and today, the second half was better, for ten minutes, but the five man midfield of Portsmouth dictated the entire game today.
In the first half we scored twice and basically put the game to bed, mostly because Pompey, while they did much better in the second half, left it too late and ultimately didn´t have the quality, despite a large number of shots on target.
But, it is the result that matters and while the penalty Milner scored was given away cheaply and the goal Gabby scored came from a very long ball, it was enough and as of now, I don´t think anyone can complain, especially when you look at the league table.
We did play 4-4-2 but like I wrote above, the Pompey midfield dictated the game in so much that towards the end of the first half it was long ball football from us and in the second, after a good ten minutes from us, they pretty much had most of the second half.
We also finished the game playing 4-5-1, but the game was over in the first 45 minutes.
But we battled and we did well. Our two new central defenders really do look the business and Cueller and Warnock look good in the full back positions.
Milner and Young, sometimes both playing on the left today, but also switching and working well together are looking better and in the middle, Stan and Sidwell did very well considering they were playing against three players.
Gabby is growing with confidence and Carew, brought off for Heskey (who was soon replaced by Delph after picking up an injury) in the second half, also got about today, even dropping back early in the first half to help out.
Overall, not the most convincing performance but we got the result and while there is little evidence based on the performance today, I have a feeling we have another gear, if Martin O´Neill really wants us to move up to it.
Post-mortem tomorrow but for now, please vote for your man of the match to the right. I´m off for a beer to celebrate because you don´t get much better than a 2-0 win at home.