I felt at half time on Saturday on IFollow that the first half was the best 45 minutes I had seen from a Pompey side for a very long time. What surprised me was that Cowley has got them playing out from the back i.e. via the short pass from McGillivray and then gradual continued possession with no long kicking. Close was the kingpin in all of that, it suited him down to the ground and he was a major influence. If I had know beforehand that passing and movement whilst keeping possession was to be the norm for the Cowley I might have wondered whether we had enough of that type of player to adapt. But Saturday proved that it can be achieved, although that early 2nd half goal from the Shrews meant that our defensive element had to come to the fore.
I had my heart in my mouth on, more than one occasion, when we played out from the back. The players seemed totally ill at ease with it (or maybe that was just Raggett). I think that contributed to Close looking even better than he was because he looked totally confident on the ball.
(29-03-2021, 11:00 AM)Pangus Wrote: [ -> ]I felt at half time on Saturday on IFollow that the first half was the best 45 minutes I had seen from a Pompey side for a very long time. What surprised me was that Cowley has got them playing out from the back i.e. via the short pass from McGillivray and then gradual continued possession with no long kicking. Close was the kingpin in all of that, it suited him down to the ground and he was a major influence. If I had know beforehand that passing and movement whilst keeping possession was to be the norm for the Cowley I might have wondered whether we had enough of that type of player to adapt. But Saturday proved that it can be achieved, although that early 2nd half goal from the Shrews meant that our defensive element had to come to the fore.
Couldn't agree more.
My only complaint, and if the Cowley's remain at the club we're going to have to get used to it, is the constant 'injuries' our players went down with. A Huddersfield supporter I know said that we'll be able to set our watches by the players dropping like flies so the coaching team can get their messages across. Many on the old forum used to slate Ainsworth's Wycombe team for just that so it'll be interesting to see how that pans out on here.