Match Report 2001-2002

Saturday 12 January, 2002, Division One

Portsmouth At Valley Parade

Law gets first win with the replacements

To my dying day I will maintain one thing about this season. "It could have been".

It could have been the best season in City's history. We could have run away with the first division title. We could have if we had continued the form at the start of the season. City marched into Fratton Park, Portsmouth in August 2001 and nicked away with three points. Back then they were three points on the championship trail. The three points plundered from Pompey at VP were allotted to staving off relegation.

Yet had City shown the same spirit as they did in coming back from an early goal against the South Coast side all season then we would be ahead of Manchester City, there is no doubt about that in my mind.

Jim Jefferies talked about the squad. He said that we would have trouble with injuries, that the squad was too thin, too low on quality outside of the first eleven. One could argue that Gunnar Halle, Gary Locke, Eoin Jess. Lee Sharpe and Andy Myers of the starting eleven today were first teamers, but even with that generous statement City had over 50% of a team that Jim Jefferies was prepared to write off. %0% of a team that Jefferies had decided were a problem.

It was on the performance of these players that Nicky Law's future as City manager would be shaped. Law's home debut was to set the tone for the next few months. A loss and it seemed that manager and chairman would be fighting a rear guard action until the summer, the win gives both time to build.

Robbed of all forwards at the club save the ineffectual Gareth Grant Law started with a 451 with the aforementioned Grant on the left wing and centreback Andy Tod as target men. Perhaps we should stop considering Tod a centreback at all. His performances in that position are below what is required for this division, his displays up front are exactly what is called for in the cut and thrust of the Nationwide league.

Take the first minute corner that found the head of giant Peter Crouch and went over to a Blue shirt at the back post, ball pushed back in and Tod had lost Crouch who directed the ball towards goal to score through the legs of Lee Sharpe (Others insist that Linvoy Primus got the goal, he may have done, but I did not see him get a touch). Tod at the back: questionable.

Tod up front: powerful. He is a carthorse, in that he carries the play. Much weight in loaded onto the back of a one in a 451 but Tod never faltered in his chasing of high balls and challenges. Fast forward twenty minutes from Portsmouth's opener and the visitors had barely mounted a second attack. City's inner midfield three of Lee Sharpe, Gary Locke and Claus Jorgensen was dominating the game. Locke had shown Pompey's Robert Prosnecki who was boss with a hairy challenge after 25 seconds that got the City man a booking. Locke followed the Croat all game, snuffing him out of the game.

Lee Sharpe will never be his old self, but the 30 year old new Sharpe has merits. His passing is superb and his first move with the ball is always forward. While Prosnecki hit passes over 50 yards with ease, Sharpe pinged them over ten running passing triangles that had the visitors chasing air often.

The real revelation though, was Claus Jorgensen. He is the very model of the player dismissed by Jefferies as a weak squad man, employed only at right back during the Scots time at Valley Parade. Jorgensen's judgement as to when to pass and when to try beat men was impressive, his execution of both passing and beating players was also good. He took the spirit of a Danish Paul Gascoigne circa 1990 when he ghosted around the back of the Portsmouth left defence to cut back to Eoin Jess who knocked it to Gareth Grant to equalise with his first league goal for City.

A word on Grant: He is a perplexing sort. His game goes from awful to impressing within minutes, his passing is at times woeful, at times accurate. Nicky Law likes the pace that scares defenders. As a player he has failed to progress in the past three years. Law seems set to give him a chance to shine. He played well today, but this decent display is a good few years overdue and needs to be backed up with a series of performances if Gareth Grant is not to go the same way as Michael McHugh or Jeremy Howe.

One all flattered Portsmouth at the break, City rectified that when Lee Sharpe and Grant combined on the left Sharpe got into the box and was felled. The ref gave nothing, but his linesman at the kop end, who was probably the most impressive linesman I have ever seen, flagged penalty and so it was. Sharpe bent the penalty free kick style into the top corner from a standing start. His contract is up at the end of the season, just when he is getting to be useful.

Portsmouth had become annoyed at this stage and got the first of two red cards, Jason Crowe being sent off for a second yellow card after a rustic challenge on Jorgensen. The second cam when Carl Tiler and Andy Tod got involved as they tried to get up following a challenge, Tiler got mad first and headbutted Tod. The ref once again consulting the excellent linesman.

Second later and Shapre fed Grant who crossed for Gunnar Halle, roaring in at the far post, to head home. Should Greame Rix be fired after this result he will have sleepless nights over how a right back who is close to forty managed to roar into his team's penalty area from deep.

All of which leaves City looking at a quiet end of season. Nicky Law wants five more wins to see safety. He has a clutch of quality players to return to the team. If those players can perform with the passion instilled in the replacements then five wins should be achieved sooner rather than later. If Law really wants to impress a target of staying undefeated at Valley Parade for the rest of season would go a long way to instilling confidence in the future.

None of which is as good as the championship that this team was capable of, but considering December, and it's woes, it seems good enough.

Man of the Match

Claus Jorgensen

Something of a second debut for the Dane who got to show City fans what he can do for the first time. Think of his as the Danish Gazza.

City Team:

Muggleton
Halle Caldwell Myers Emanuel
Jess Jorgensen Locke Sharpe Grant
Tod