Two years on from the 6-1 "mare" at Portsmouth!

[Guy]

Despite all the general gripes on here about our so called "under-achievements" over the past two seasons under a mixture of Sousa, Sven and Nige phase two (whereby we've all been guilty of a moan at some stage along the way, some much more than others of course!), when you think back to this time in 2010 yesterday at Portsmouth then surely your outlook then changes!

As every City fan and a lot of the footballing nation will probably remember, that 6-1 drubbing at Fratton Park was broadcast live on Friday night's Sky slot on September 24th. I, for one am eminently grateful for where we are now in most respects, certainly by comparison to two short years ago! All I remember is our lack of a gameplan and totally inept defending - with the likes of Hobbs, Berner, Morrison and Wellens looking like statuesque rabbits in headlights all match and the smell of relegation back in the air, plus ironically Nugent and co. banging the goals in at will! - this coming after all we'd achieved to get back there to the Championship and of course to the play offs the previous season under Nige!

Two years on, it is also a case of look at us now and look at Pompey! I know where I'd rather be in the football league pyramid, even if we're not qualifying for Europe every year via winning the league cup and enjoying consistent top 10 Prem. finishes! So as they say, be grateful for small mercies! It also sounds as if Nige is adopting a spend/conserve wisely policy with the team we have in place, thus avoiding the Pompey and Cov. roads to disaster and possible oblivion!

[Deucalion]

The 'what if' will always be, where would we be now if Pearson had stayed?

I always assume he would've continued his good work and progress and we would probably be in the Premier League by now. This is the most likely alternative reality for me.

But I suppose we could've had that poor start with Pearson too and second season syndrome could've hit the team hard which had probably used momentum to overachieve the previous season.

But we are where we are, and as the OP says, we are better off than many others!

[Trav Le Bleu]

Doubtless Portsmouth fans were laughing it up that evening as we were wallowing in misery and Foxestalk was going into meltdown, but as you say - you wouldn't swap places with them now. It is all about the long game. I'd be happy just to keep the same manager for 2 seasons in a row.

[Basingstoke Fox]

I took my girlfriend to her first football game that day, wasn't the best choice.

Definitely wouldn't have happened if we kept Pearson and didn't try to completely change a successful winning formula for the sake of it.

[Guy]

Doubtless Portsmouth fans were laughing it up that evening as we were wallowing in misery and Foxestalk was going into meltdown, but as you say - you wouldn't swap places with them now. It is all about the long game. I'd be happy just to keep the same manager for 2 seasons in a row.

Bang on the money there Trav, short termism gets blown out of the water when you do an A/B comparison, between these two sides - Pompey probably laughed too soon at our then misfortune! Even when conducting such a comparison to just two short years ago, many things can change in football and very quickly! I suppose the fundaments of the matter were that Pompey were let down from a great height by unscrupulous investors/owners and Redknapp also added his own fuel to the fire by bringing in players on "big money" with all his wheeling and dealing years spent there....shades of Sven with us maybe! Then it all turned to dust for them after their decent stay in the Prem. and their FA Cup triumph in 2008. As I alluded to, we could've undergone a similar fate had it continued in that unsustainable way under Sven - but we'll never know now of course. While we called Mandyrich during his time here, he was a God when compared to some of the owners we could've had, even though he was a prat for some of his time here, esp. in 2007-08, the infamous managerial merry-go-round season, where we plummeted to the depths of League One at the end of it of course as a net result. At least some form of redemption took place when he hired and backed Pearson and we escaped thst league at the first attempt! Then he was back to being a prat again when he brought in Sousa! Then he was gone!

It's certainly a game of cycles but having said that, I sincerely hope we don't ever plummet back down to the depths of League One and that the Thais' are going to be true to their word. Although you never know what's round the corner, it is looking good at board room level....for now and for the foreseeable future anyway!

[Kitchandro]

Well obviously I'd much rather be us than Pompey.

But I wouldn't say I'm grateful for where we are. If you look just months before that game I think we should be very disappointed with how things have gone since.

We should never have been in that situation, we shot ourselves in the foot by letting Pearson go and appointing Sousa, and the team was performing below it's potential. And I think it's set us back quite a bit.

[Guy]

Yes, I also subscribe to the general consensus that we'd have been better off keeping hold of Pearson in 2010 and granting his pay demands - or whatever was the true cause of his defecting to Hull when he did. I know Mandyrich was the root cause of matters though, with the manner in which Sousa was being lined up for taking over after our play offs failure at Cardiff - when Sousa was there waiting in the wings and watching the game and such like, so rumour had it....

Then again the flip side to the coin is that we could've indeed had second season play off failure "blues" had Pearson stayed and attempted to build on the previous season's over-achievement in 2010. The momentum that carried over from the previous season's triumph in League One was also a massive factor which caused our "over-achievement" in 2009-10 I feel, as said many a time since. All the same, keeping Pearson could've certainly have not been any worse than Sousa and his cronies' time spent here though!

[Jordan]

I was absolutely furious that day. I was following that game at work and I had to go outside and take a few breaks during the game just so I wouldn't lose my shit in front of everybody.

I couldn't believe we let Pearson go that summer, and I still cannot.

I think we are making solid progress this season. If we win tomorrow, Wolves and Blackpool will still be ahead of us, but as we have seen, those teams are not that good. I still have every bit of confidence that we will settle down and be challenging for promotion in the end.

[dedlock]

In another thread there is reference to booing City. I've never booed. I was not there,but that night I turned off Half-time ,could have shouted at the telly,probably did!

[Daggers]

...plus ironically Nugent and co. banging the goals in at will!

How is it "ironic"?

[theessexfox]

Pompey is an exception though, compare to most other clubs around us at the time and it's a different story.

[Trav Le Bleu]

How is it "ironic"?

Ask Alannis.

Wouldn't that make a great tv/radio/mag feature!

[LJS]

Of course we are better off now than we were as we were losing that game, but I'm not thrilled with where we are now. I'll always think we pissed a moment up the wall be allowing Pearson to leave so easily that summer. We had momentum, a team with a strong spirit, and some decent players playing very well for their manager. I have no idea where we'd be now had we held on to Pearson in 2010, but I suspect we wouldn't have whimpered our way to scraping two top ten finishes like we have done.

[Guy]

How is it "ironic"?

Work it out! Nugent....Portsmouth in 2010, now plays for us......! Maybe 'ironic' is the wrong word but "Nuge", along with Liam Lawrence and his other Pompey team-mates certainly knew where the net was that fateful night two years ago and they were scoring at free will. I don't think we've played as badly ever since then and getting rid of Sousa when we did was the right decision I feel. The whole approach of his attempting to play a different style of football to our successful and direct Pearson-orientated team from the previous two seasons was just plain wrong - which was emphatically proved for his very forgettable two months at the helm!

[Leicesterpool]

weird thing is for me, yesterday i was down the road from portsmouth yesterday and what was the score, i hate hampshire!

[Guy]

Pompey is an exception though, compare to most other clubs around us at the time and it's a different story.

Well we're still brushing shoulders with Cardiff, Blackpool and Forest as far as I know, the three other teams in the 2010 play offs - if that's what you're alluding to! None of them have come on in leaps and bounds ever since, yes, Blackpool were very unlucky not to stay up for that season in the Prem. admittedly and might have become a Wigan or a Stoke had they pulled it off.