Pompey 1 Carlisle 0: Gaffer for a day

You said before the game the result depends on which Pompey turns up.

It was a kind of in-between Pompey in the end!

The first half was nondescript and nothing really got going.

But they started going for it in the second half and things came to life.

Who stood out for you?

Christian Burgess was my man-of-the-match.

He won a lot of balls in the air and also brought the ball out of defence well.

Otherwise, there were good bits and bad bits from players, without anyone else really standing out.

There was a sense of impetus in the second half, though.

Definitely. The support was a lot better than it has been, too.

Everyone was singing in the first half, even when it wasn’t happening.

I heard one player say there were boos at half-time. I didn’t hear any.

It was good when the tempo went up in the second half and the crowd went with it.

And then came THAT miss from Hallam Hope.

How did he miss it?! It was one of those ends to the game where you are thinking here we go again. Thankfully it went our way.

And Paul Jones got the nod in goal.

It was good Jonesy managed to keep a clean sheet.

I must have been a difficult choice for Paul Cook to choose between him and Ryan Fulton.

I must say I think the system is a bit odd, though, if Fulton says he doesn’t want to play when he gets a call up from Scotland and they can stop him playing for us.

And what a nice touch to see the former players introduced to the crowd at half time

Wonderful. I was at the Pompey Hall of Fame on Friday night and it was a great evening.

Dave Kemp was there and had to get all the way up to Sunderland by Saturday morning to be ready for West Brom’s game there.

I spoke to Noel Blake on Friday and when he came past the Trust bus, where I am on a match day, on Saturday.

All of the players all seem to have a genuine fondness for the club, and that is really lovely to see.