Skates Preview 2

I can't find a better picture than this so I'm using it again...

By way of a preview of the Derby on Saturday – here’s a Scummers and Skates summary of the week leading upto it.  We sit clear at the top by 2 points from Reading and 6 clear of 3rd place West Ham whereas they sit 5 points adrift of safety.  Both teams got royally stuffed in their last games with us losing 3-0 at playoff-chasing Blackpool and them losing 5-1 to Burnley who this year, are a mid-table nothing team.

Monday 2nd April

SCUMMERS: Rumours emanating from the indiscreet Japanese media say that Tadanari Lee is out for 4-6 months with an ankle injury picked up in training and meanwhile, Nigel has been fending off more rumours that Sir Rickie has had an op and is out for the season. A Plymouth Youth player called Sam Gallagher has signed for Saints on Academy terms so ignore all that stuff I said about Arsenal nicking Luke Shaw as the boot is on the other foot here.  I hope that Plymouth have been sufficiently compensated and have not been ripped off.  With the rules being the way they now are, I expect they’ve been ripped off.

SKATES:  It appears that The Skates have an injury question over George Thorne, one of their loan players from West Brom who they are “not paying a penny for honest Guv”.  He was their best player against us earlier in the season and if he doesn’t make it then it’s going to be difficult to guess their team as they have so many options in the squad.  Hopefully it means that Mokoena will play.  Meanwhile, the self appointed Best Fans in the World ™ have not yet sold out their allocation and there are a number who have bought tickets but are too thick to realise that you HAVE to buy coach travel in order to get your ticket.  This was also the first working day after the CVA from Pompey’s 2009 Administration, officially failed as admitted by Trevor Birch.  The Football league have done nothing, thus proving that you get a points deduction for exiting administration without a CVA (Leeds, Luton, Bournemouth) but you can agree a CVA and then ignore it and not get punished.

Tuesday 3rd April

SCUMMERS: Sir Rickie will be fit sooner rather than later, say sources at SFC but these same sources have not yet commented on the story about Tadanari Lee being out for a long time so who knows what to believe.  I won’t believe he’s fit until the teamsheet is handed in at 12.15pm on Saturday and the big man is on it.  If he’s not fit and it was down to me, I’d pick Billy Sharp and Lee Barnard up front.

SKATES: Understanding the ‘Bubble’ operation in order to herd Pompey fans into and out of St.Mary’s has obviously been too difficult for some as any number between 100 and 1000 fans (depending on what you read) who have bought a voucher for a ticket, have not bought the compulsory coach travel to go with it.  When Saints visited Fratton earlier in the season you got both voucher and coach ticket at the same time, however, the coach company, for some unknown reason, didn’t trust the Skates to pay for the tickets do they didn’t release them in advance.  There are rumours of 50 - 200 or so tickets being unsold as well.  Pompey manager Michael Voldemort is apparently working on a list of players to sign for next season – I wonder what club he’ll be at?

Wednesday 4th April

SCUMMERS: There’s an article on Lee Barnard which appears on the official website which is being seen by some as an indication that Sir Rickie won’t be fit for Saturday.   There was also confirmation that the home areas of SMS on Saturday have completely sold out.  Talking of strikers, Sam Gallagher made his first appearance for the Under 16’s and scored a hat-trick, as did Jake Sinclair for the Under 18’s.  Both teams won 4-1 which could be an omen, if you believe that sort of crap.

SKATES: Voldemort revels that one of his transfer targets is a Championship player who will also play in League 1 if the Skates go down – so, after years of paying Premiership players to play in the Championship, they’re now going to pay Championship players to play in League 1.  The burning issue of whether the said player would also turn out in Blue Square South Division 9 wasn’t addressed.   Not sure their fans will see the irony in Voldemort’s statement – God there are some morons on Twitter.  I like the ones who write #oneteaminhampshire – they’re a few months early especially in the light of the new that the only potential buyer mentioned so far, the Portsmouth Supporters Trust will have to raise £8 million in a couple of months to buy the club.  Once they’ve done that they just have to find another £350,000 every month, just to pay Kitson, Lawrence and Ben Haim.   I genuinely hope they succeed in buying the club but I wouldn’t be betting any money on it.  Other news is that they’ve extended the loan of Chris Maguire who has been decent find for them, scoring a couple of goals and he’ll be their major threat on Saturday.

BOTH: A lot of fans on both sides have been questioning why the game isn’t being shown on TV.  I don’t know if this has come from an official source or not but one thing I read was that there was too much audible swearing on the coverage from Fratton earlier in the season.  Dunno why but I found that hilarious.

Thursday 5th April

SCUMMERS:  Sir Rickie is fit and firing in the goals in training according to Nigel.  I like this news and I like it a lot.

SKATES: Voldemort says that Saturday’s game is perfect for them.  I guess he’s right - if they get something from the game then it sets them up superbly for a tilt at staying up, get battered however and it’s expected.  The whole season is one big ‘free hit’ for Voldemort really as no one will blame him for anything that goes wrong due to all the ‘off the pitch’ shite.  He has to sort out Saturday without George Thorne who is out for the season so don’t be surprised if they exercise the one out, one in policy and try to sign Tevez on loan for Saturday and the Football league allow them.  It’s blood boiling time as Avram Grant is interviewed and he wants the Skates to summon up the ‘spirit of 2010’ when their team of Premiership players and illegal loans beat our League 1 team with a few players missing, by 4-1.  The spirit of 2010 then went and paid for a wank at Horton Heath allegedly.

Friday 6th April

SCUMMERS: We have had a day of press conferences with Nigel sounding confident and very calm about the game.   Hopefully this will transmit to the players who won’t get too involved in any silly bastards which could result in a red card.  Danny Fox, no doubt one of our more fiery players, sounds well up for it and Superkelv came out and talked of the pain remaining from the 2010 match, stressing that it was a lot closer than the 4-1 scoreline suggests.  Our two main Auto promotion rivals played today with Reading making heavy weather of beating Leeds and West Ham thumping Barnsley at Oakwell.  Reading are now top, a point ahead of us and West Ham are three points back with both having played a game more.

SKATES: Voldemort stresses that the Skates are coming for a win – well he has to say that for to reasons, 1 is that they are 5 points adrift of safety so whilst a point will be one more than they should get, it’s not much use in the scheme of things.  2 is that he’s hardly going to say anything else – we’re hoping to nick a draw or we’ll just be grateful not to get totally fucked.

So, it’s here at last, the Skates are in town for a league game for the first time since 2004.  This would be huge regardless of league positions but with both clubs desperate for points, it’s even more so.  Our primary concern has to be keeping our results as good as the ones West Ham and Reading are getting but leaving other teams aside for a moment - we really need to win this one to get the bragging rights back and be able to take the piss without fear until the next time we play them by which time (lets face it) many of us currently under the age of 30 could be dribbling into our soup in a rest home.

The Skate mates I have were really buying into the 'one man team' thing this week and hoping that Sir Rickie was out.  I get annoyed with the one man team thing but it has to be said, we didn't exactly disprove it last week.  It got me thinking who I was worried about on their side and to be honest, there isn't really any players who stand out.  Jos and Jose should be able to play Varney and Maguire ok and Thorne being out means Morgan and Corky should find it easier win the midfield battle against Norris and one other.  We will have the usual right-wing conundrum but because of the Skates favouring a diamond midfield, I can see Chappers being given the nod.  Up front I would anticipate Sir Rickie and Billy Sharp which means Guly on the bench which probably won't happen.

Prediction… Saints 2 Skates 0

Can’t wait….

COYR

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