Saturday Afternoon Stroll: Pompey Report

On the journey home, I had a quick peek at Facebook and decided to update the status thingy to, "Phil Kimberley believes that win can be summed up as comfortable, professional and a little dull."

I think that`s a very nice job, so there you go. See ya!

What? You want more? *Sighs* Okay, come on then…

A fourth consecutive league win, up to joint second (albeit temporarily), two clean sheets for the new look defence, three goals in as many games for Gabby… there have been worse Saturdays.

The first-half was a relative breeze. As some of you will know I am a huge advocate of us playing 4-5-1 but today the 4-4-2 actually seemed like the right thing to do; Portsmouth appeared relatively happy to park the proverbial bus and settle for a draw, but unfortunately for them, their bus seems to have dodgy brakes.

For example, one of the best saves of the match was made just after 10 minutes by David James - which he was forced into making after Aaron Mokeoena almost headed an Ashley Young cross into his own goal!

Pompey knocked it about nicely and their five-man midfield meant they were seeing a fair bit of the ball, but with no real cutting edge we were very comfortable and looked like we could score whenever we went forward. Quite a few times in the first half a straight ball down the middle caused them some problems that they really should have been able to deal with.

Just after the half-hour mark, Pompey hit the self-destruct button through Nadir Belhadj. As Stiliyan Petrov lost control of the ball in the box, Belhadj failed to clear, and as Petrov won the ball back, Belhadj made a clumsy and needless challenge that gave the Villa a penalty.

Step up, James Milner.

Jimmy struck the ball well and despite David James going the right way, the speed of the ball ensured it went in.

The game remained comfortable with Villa in around third gear, and despite Friedel having to make his first save with a few minutes of the first-half remaining, it was Villa who doubled the lead - and effectively sealed the win - just before half-time.

James Milner flicked on a Brad Friedel goal-kick into Gabriel Agbonlahor, who turned Ben Haim with astonishing ease and, despite slipping as he shot, smashed the ball past James.

The second half was a dull affair; Villa happy to soak up the Pompey pressure, with the visitors unable to do much to test the Villa defence beyond a few long-range efforts that were dealt with well by Brad Friedel.

Their best moment came from Frederic Piquionne who managed to force his way past a couple of defenders and forced a very good save from Friedel.

Villa could have added a third, with some good work by Agbonlahor on the left going unrewarded and James pulling off another good save after an effort from Petrov.

But the job was done, and all rather comfortably. Hopefully by this time next week we will have progressed in the League Cup and have another three points in the bag.

It`s far too early to get excited, but I quite like the way we are quietly going about our business while Spurs and in particular Man City get all the attention as the 'most likely to break the top 4` contenders. My belief is almost back…!

Up the Villa!

No-one was exceptional but there was enough good performances to make this difficult. I'm going to say Milner, but I could understand claims for Friedel, Collins, Dunne, Petrov or Agbonlahor as well!
He was kept fairly busy and made a few decent saves. You would be disappointed if he headn't made them, mind. But you can only deal with what is thrown at you and deal with it he did. He was solid enough, but this is the type of game where it seems like we really should have a right-back that can offer us more going forward. He still seems to be finding his feet a bit. He can (and I'm sure will) do better. Not that most challenging of afternoons, Collins did well with what he had to do. Positionally he lets himself down a bit by being too deep; the problem for me is that he is the same kind of defender as Dunne and wants to be out there attacking the ball, so is slightly uncomfortable in the 'Cuellar role', as it were. But overall, a good performance. Very good again. He joined in well with the midfield a couple of times and was slightly unlucky not to score off a corner. I think that long-term him and Cuellar may well be the main duo for us, and in theory that should be very good indeed. No apologies needed this week from Jimmy! I thought he did well, his movement was good and the execution of his passes were much better than the previous game! Took his penalty well. Possibly MOTM for me. You know what you're going to get, and you know it's going to be good. He probably forced the save of the match from James, and was his usual reliable self. As usual, he was missing slightly at times but I have no qualms about what he did. He makes some very good runs, almost Platt-like, but unfortunately he doesn't have the touch or composure to get the goals that Platt did. He should score more, though. Did his defensive work quite well to be fair. Pretty quiet from Ash. He did okay. I would have thought that this would be the type of game where he would really shine but in all fairness there was usually two men on him. Sometimes his set-pieces drive me mad, because you know he CAN do much better. Again, like Young, I would have thought he would have imposed himself more against this Pompey defence. I suppose he has played a bit less football than the others, and he will now be hoping to get a bit more of a run in the side. Given the NRC situation, I believe he may well get what he wants. Took his goal very well and caused plenty of problems for Ben Haim. I felt he wasn't as good as he had been in the last 3 league games but it was still a decent performance and hey, the most important thing is that he keeps sticking the ball in the net. The fans around us were genuinely willing him to do well. As long as he's a Villa player, I will understand the negative comments but hope he gets that kind of support whenever he is out on the pitch. Obviously the injury meant he wasn't on the pitch long enough to really judge anything! He didn't have lots of time to impose himself and the game had already died out by then. Tried to get involved as much as he could, though. Guzan, Beye, Shorey, Gardner, Delfouneso. 7. A standard win. I hope 4-4-2 doesn't return permanently though. Not that I have an issue with the starting XI in a 4-5-1; John up top, Gabby on the right, Milner in the middle. Keep it flexible, switch to 4-4-2 sometimes, swap Milner/Young/Agbonlahor on occasion, keep the opposition guessing. Simples! 6. What can you say? They knocked it about nicely, had a few efforts on goal and over the course of the 90 minutes will argue that they deserved a draw. I'd be inclined to disagree because we have at least another couple of gears in us, but really the point is - defend like that, and you are in real trouble. They play better football than most the teams around them, but like the Baggies last year, have issues at both ends of the pitch. If they can sort them out then they may have enough about them to stay up, but they need to sort it out quickly. What a horrible little character. Consistent fouling, consistent whinging, consistent rolling about on the floor like he's been shot followed by jumping up seconds later and running around normally. At least he's consistent. Consistently a scumbag. Stuart Attwell - by a Premiership standard he was okay. Unfortunately for him and us, that still means rubbish. Some really poor decisions, both for and against us. There will be a lot worse performances this season though. Blackburn away. A trip I love to make but unfortunately am unable to do so this year. So if you're going, give the boys a shout for me!

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