Personally, I could understand why he gave each card. Another ref perhaps would not have.

We did very well to withstand the second-half onslaught and come away with the points. If you look at the chances, it could easily have gone either way, but deservedly won by King Loius with an absolutely superb piece of striker's skill to win the game.

Perhaps fatigue played a major part in today's performance but I was disappointed that the passing football we’ve played a bit of lately disappeared, and we seemed to revert to hoofball again. I was actually really glad to see Hibbert come on coz Jonny got skinnned on more than a couple of occasions down the right.

Good three points though... just have to grow my nails back now!!!!

Does anyone know if Bily has still got his head after Younes "the executioner" Kaboul tried to rob it?

The Ref was Alan Wiley should explain it all. He gives us nothing.

The ref was a shithouse,he was giving Portsmouth everything and conveniently failing to see offences against our players,the one were Billy nearly lost his head was beyond belief,we dont have anyone apart from Cahill who will stand up to rough tactics,we are too easily bullied out of the game.The ’bastard in the black’ couldnt wait to give our players yellow cards and them free kicks around our box,my heart was in my mouth everytime Portsmouth got into our box because he would’ve pointed to the spot for any tumble they took.

Quite a few of the lads weren’t at the races today and the second half was Fulhamesque in its ineptitude... we did not deserve to get all three points and anyone who says we did is kidding themselves.

I hope the flying headbutt on Pienaar’s groin doesn’t rule him out for too long; how the ref never awarded a card for that is beyond me. Also if that roundhouse kick by kung fu panda Kaboul is a legitimate part of the defenders armoury — they should issue forwards with crash helmets... that was nothing short of disgraceful — if he’d have connected with Billy’s head he’d have volleyed it into the mainstand.

What worried me is when Pienaar went off crocked Everton retreated into their shell and lost all confidence in short passing and moving intelligently... I’ve seen Eerton do this before — we did it at St James Park year.

Bringing on Hibbert was a very good move; I’m not in the least impressed with Heitinga I’m afraid — he reminds me of ’Mad Dog’ Tommy Gravesen on one of his full moon days.

Fellaini has done well this season but his was a yellow. The shirt of Bily should have told the ref that it was high.

Well happy with the result; it always was going to be a hard game. I was surprised there weren't any more bookings or maybe a red card.

What does everyone think of Johnny? A red card can't be far away... some of his tackles are a bit wild.

Bily's still got his head, but not his shirt. Terrible reading of the game by the ref; if he’d flashed the yellow when it started getting fiesty, maybe Pienaar wouldn’t have got butted in the groin.

Johnny didn’t have a good game and gave me cause for concern with his lack of pace and the fact he turns like the Titanic. Saha... class; Howard... great saves, even with his shoulder; Pienaar... a BIG worry, thought Fellaini did well... Baines un all. Rodwell looked out of sorts and not ready to be classed as Der Kaiser.

Overall, we where lucky to come away with 3 points and a clean sheet; Portsmouth might have lost 7 on the bounce but after those relegation comments by Merson looked like they where fighting for their lives. Dindane and the Spurs lad looked decent and they will win their fair share of games.

Kevin Sparke: "I’m not in the least impressed with Heitinga I’m afraid — he reminds me of ’Mad Dog’ Tommy Gravesen on one of his full moon days."

---

Haha... made me laugh. Spot on though, sadly. His play just made me cringe every time. Far too much hoofing as well... the obvious irony being that one such hoof led to a really high-quality strike from the King. I just love the way he finished that off. Simply superb.

When did we last have a striker of such quality? I love the Yak but his finishing isn’t quite at that level...

And fucking Osman... don’t get me started. One cross is all he did of any value in the entire game. The rest of the time it was the usual missed passes, brushed off the ball, failing to track back, hopeless.

He was... how can I put this... Oh I remember:

Passenger; waste of space; useless.

Alright Chris I’m game: Exacting; Opinionated; Passionate; Funny & Inclusive.

Do I win a pen now?

Kiern. I give you three and a half out of five there. Agree with first three give you half for funny at times but don’t always think Toffeeweb is inclusive at times.

Chris Leyland tell me exactly what is wrong with Michael’s comments?

Leon Osman today was absolutely shocking ONCE AGAIN. He might have played well against shitty Hull’s shitty 2nd team through the week, but that clearly DOES NOT warrant a place every fucking week in our team, especially considering when we have far more better options.

Today he looked to me like he was sulking because he was playing out wide and wasn’t captain... now imagine if that wasn’t one of our "home grown" players - some people on here would be going absolutely fucking ballistic.

So to summarise Osman: PASSENGER, WASTE OF SPACE, USELESS...

COYB

John Nelson - read my post again mate. Did I say anything was wrong with his post or his description of Osman? Erm answer is NO!

Chris I do apologise mate, I thought you were having a bit of a dig at those comments... Again sorry!

I hate getting on players backs but the situation with Osman is taking the piss now. One thing that seems to get players with limited/no ability out of jail is effort, but Osman just permanently looks like he can’t be arsed. Ok right wing mightn’t be his favoured position, but it’s all about putting in 100%, and that fucker clearly DOES NOT.

Anyway...

Going back to the original sentiments of the post, the referee was awful again today. I think Alan Wiley has took over the mantle from Graham Poll as the main referee that tries to fuck us over at every given opportunity. How on Earth when Bily nearly got his head taken off by that yard dog Kaboul did not warrant a yellow card at least is beyond belief.

Also, fat twat Wiley was the ref through the week when he shit out of sending Mascherano off for the RS.

Agreed John, and the very same here..... I really loathe getting at any of our players, but Osman is stretching it to bursting point with me. Michael was absolutely spot on in that the cross in the first half was the only contribution made during the whole time he was on the field. I was made up when I read that he had a stormer against the Hull IX the other night and thought that would have been a confidence booster...... sadly not. Absolutely fucking hopeless.

Rodders was well off the pace today, as were various others, but everyone’s entitled to a bad game..... Just that Ossie’s taking it to extremes. I defy the Ossie defenders to come up with anything of value from that display.

Osman wasn't good today as Cahill I thought. Rodwell wasn't at his best, the whole midfield wasn't very effective... that was because Pompey are already fighting for their lives and on a 6-game losing run. Like it or not, they will target us as a possible 3 pts. They fought and scrapped for everything. Not many teams will play football there and come away with the points. We have the points and Spurs next round of the Carling Cup... happy days

All the comments about Ossie are so true but what I fail to to see what DM sees in that lazy twat Fellaini, every time we attacked and the ball went to him he lost it and the attack broke down. He never ever tracks back when he has lost it and lets his team-mates do the hard work. He never jumps for a header and he is fucking nine foot tall!!!! So if he jumped he would win every ball. Fellaini, look at your team-mate Cahill, he jumps and wins nearly every header.

If Fellaini is worth €15mil then Cahill is priceless!!!!!

Hmm... interesting. I really expected us to steamroll Pompey but, after a 6 game loosing streak, I suppose they had to show they had something about them.

Fellaini flatters to decieve, Osman another stinker, Bily should have started instead. Osman should be a squad player at best one for Europe early stages, cups and lower level less physical teams. Heitinga was not looking great today and Rodwell was a bit off the pace but another 3 points and something to follow on from... Bring on Europe!!

ps: Saha is turning out to be a better player than i thought he would; pure class, looking good value for keeping him at the club. When that offer came in, I was tempted to want to cash in but 7 in 7 and not even injured... get in, lad. "Take a bow!"

Anybody expressing that we were solely responsible for the "poor performance" today has simply not looked at the bigger picture. If some of you can honestly say that the game would have been just as difficult had the refereeing decisions been even remotely correct, then you need to take a long hard look at the game again and also at your anti-Moyes, grumpy bastard selves.

Sure the second half was not pretty but what the hell does anyone expect when we have players of Baines, Pienaar, Osman, Billy et al stature been kicked the shit out of for 45 minutes. The referee was an absolute fucking joke and deserves a red card for his pathetic display today. If even one of those cards had been deservedly shown to those shower of dogs then rest assured there would have been more substitutions on Pompey’s side similar to Mokoena’s (substituted with respect partly because of his rash and terrible challenges) and therefore the pressure we had to endure would have been nullified almost entirely.

The fact that they did not receive ANY cautions whatsoever only inspired the filthy bastards to be even dirtier as the game went on therefore leaving Moyes with little choice but to revert to someone like Hibbert who could take care of himself against Pompey.

Some people on this website don’t fail to amaze me with their negativity towards Everton and Moyes in particular. Sometimes i doubt that Hibbert and Osman are good enough to be in a squad but other times I wonder over the necessity in the abuse that they receive for their undoubted effort and commitment to the team.

Another victory in the bag, albeit one that failed to deliver the expectations of the last few games. Let the glass be half-full for a change, some of you!

Up the Blues and David Moyes and anybody who pulls on a royal blue shit!

I didn’t comment on Osman as I’m sure others would. But it’s now getting to the stage where his is the first name I look for on the team sheet just to see if we’re going to play well today. For fuck sake, Pienaar right, Bily left.

Michael — I agree, Saha is a truly world class player, even at 31 — not just his finishing but the way he plays himself out of tight corners and can often create something out of nothing.

I hope he stays fit... we might have a half decent season ahead of us if he can bang in 20 - 25 goals.

Kevin Sparke’s right. We did not deserve to win today. Or put another way: Pompey did not deserve to lose.

For long periods of the second half we couldn’t get the ball. And when we did we gave it away, including when we had it in some very promising attacking situations. It was a dodgy performance and three points nicked in my opinion.

As for Leon: After Wednesday’s stormer I wondered on here if he could yet achieve a level of consistent performance, and if he could still yet do it against the top teams. Portsmouth aren’t a top team! Maybe we’ve already seen the answer to that question!

Not a good performance, memorable only for what Michael quite rightly points out was a class finish from the King.

We’ll play better than we did today this season, so there’s plenty to remain optimistic about, despite this afternoon’s blood pressure raising display.

Michael Kenrick.

I dont normally agree with you but today I saw what I knew, Osman is fucking shite. I sat behind a bloke who looked like Osman, so I hoped it was his old man or other relation, and I and others made it clear what we thought of him.

Today was very poor, no one played well, no one. We play so much better without Hibbert, Neville and Osman, we dont need, or want them.

Fellaini was easily our best performer on the day. Pretty much ran the show until he began to tire. As for Osman I was neither surprised nor disappointed by his showing. As soon as his name appears in the starting eleven I fear for the full back who can expect a torrid time all afternoon.

What I found truly astonishing was that at times he was actually demanding others raise their game whilst he pissed about and contributed absolutely nothing to the team effort. Little wonder Fellaini and others eventually ran out of steam, it must be absolutely galling for him and the others to have to carry Osman every time we face stiff opposition.

The odd thing about Kevin Sprake’s assertion that ’we didn’t dererve all three points’ is that he provides the argument that the home side might have been reduced to ten men.

At the very least they could have had three or five yellow cards which might have made their approach to injuring our players a little less ’robust’.

As sometimes happens in these situations, the referee, a classic homer, concentrated the minds and efforts of the away team. The dirty bastards got exactly what they deserved - nothing.

Their number 12 will carry on as if he had done a good job.

Steven Pienaar could be out for weeks.

12-0 in four games will do me. Unfortunately its only for the moment, because if we keep this up we will win everything.

But that probably would still not be enough for some I guess.

Oh dear Michael -

"Far too much hoofing as well... the obvious irony being that one such hoof led to a really high-quality strike from the King. "

Heitinga’s 40m ball to pick out Saha was a "hoof" was it? No skill or vision involved then? Arbitrary clearance?

We had been hacked down every time the excellent passing game we were playing got through them, usually with a foul from behind. The ref awarded free kicks, but gave no cards.

Heitinga provided Saha with a way that neither they nor the ref could stop. They both deserve full credit.

As for the ’Mad Dog’. That was a name conferred on Tommy by that good judge of human character Paul Gascoigne. Gravesen did a massive amount for this club during some very bad days. If Heitinga does half as much in better days he will be a hero.

Howard was brilliant... and not just the shrug of the shoulder, right-place, right-time save. Enough about Ossie, how ’bout somebody someplace on these threads look at the players who played damn well and need our praise. WE won a match we had no business winning... so what? We have 3 more points and are rolling into the top half of the table. And my wife drove me crazy during the match complaining about Wiley. She was sooo right which was what drove me crazy!

To those who say we didn’t deserve the win, or perhaps to put it better, Pompey didn’t deserve to lose, ask yourself this...

Did we, honestly, and I mean really honestly now, deserve to lose, on the balance of the full 90 mins, against Burnley or Fulham? Cos I don’t think we did, and neither do many of the people I’ve spoken to today. Football is known for ’evening out over the course of a season’ and I think we saw some ’evening’ today.

We were poor in general, especially in the 2nd half, and couldn’t seem to get a rhythm going. It was a classic one-goal game, and Saha showed us all more of what he can do with a prefect chin down and finish.

On a side note, I wrote a thread earlier in the week advocating we rest one or two players for this game, one of them being Rodwell, and it’s fair to say I was rather voraciously questioned. Well, the lad looked fucked today, and I only hope he’s got enough in the tank to last another 2 games before he gets his rest. Don’t get me wrong, they’re all entitled to a bad game here and there, but he looked knackered.

So many are slagging Osman (and rightly so — he was shit), but where was the harm in giving Jack a rest, and playing Osman in the centre, where he excelled on Wednesday? It’s a long trip to Minsk, so I hope Jack gets a good sleep on the plane, cos I think there’s lots more work to do on squad rotation for Mr Moyes.

That referee was absolutely awful, a complete homer. They kicked lumps out of our players all game, consistent fouling and then Rodwell got booked for kicking the ball away and minutes later one of their players booted the ball into the stands when the ref had stopped the game and no booking... Pienaar got taken out and Bily almost had his head taken off.

I agree with Moyes’s comments about the players needing protection from the referee. I had a horrible feeling that their aggressive style would end in someone getting injured and this is exactly what happened. Maybe if the referee showed some authority and punished players for constant fouling then they would think twice about making dangerous challenges.