'The fans sang it 97 per cent of the time!': John Mousinho marvels at latest Portsmouth terrace chant which lit up Cambridge United clash
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Colby Bishop’s second-half goal secured the Blues a 1-0 triumph at Cambridge United on Saturday in a match they were a touch fortunate to win.
Still, the main talking point was the long-awaited return to action of Tom Lowery – accompanied by a song the head coach had never before been treated to.
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Hide AdFor the entire 30 minutes the midfielder was present on pitch, the 1,466 travelling fans sang about ‘Tommy Lowery’ and being ‘dynamite’.
It had previously been trialled at Hereford in the FA Cup for the ex-Crewe man’s brief comeback in November, now it was being belted at the Abbey Stadium.
Mousinho told The News: ‘They probably sang it for 97 per cent of the time he was on – and that was great.
‘It was brilliant to have Tom back. It lifted the fans, it lifted the place, and he was unlucky not to get on the other night because the equaliser changed the game.
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Hide Ad‘Obviously I’ve not heard that song before. The fans kept on going and going, it was almost like playing at home at times, filling out the entire away end – in the second half we are kicking towards the home end!
‘Tom was straight away involved in a goal, he showed a lot of quality in a scrappy game and, if we get him right, then we’re in a good place.
‘I thought he did really well. You've got to take everything into consideration, he’s not played since September, that is a tough game to chuck anybody into, let alone someone who has been out for that length of time.
‘You probably see him as a more technical player than physical, you know he can handle it, as the ball breaks down you can start going wide and start playing from there.
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Hide Ad‘That's when you are going to exploit that space, so I thought he did really, really well.’
Lowery came off the bench to replace Michael Jacobs, a change which also prompted a system change.
Within five minutes, Ryan Tunnicliffe’s short corner was played to Lowery, who fed Owen Dale – and his right-wing cross was headed home by Colby Bishop.
That would be the only goal of the game as Pompey made it three successive wins in eight days.
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Hide AdMousinho added: ‘When Tom came on we went to two advanced midfielders and one holding.
‘It was a tough game for Michael, we struggled to really get him on the ball a huge amount, so what we thought we'd do is shift that formation slightly to get our advanced midfielders a bit wider and get them on the ball.
‘I think it paid off because we managed to get Tom on the ball on the right-hand channel a bit more and got a bit of joy from it.’