Bolton Wanderers: Ridiculous

So, yesterday happened. Whilst the match was being played, I was stuck in one of those huge Swedish furniture stores, with very little signal and even less 3G. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw the score after full time!

Mental. How embarrassing for us. I still can`t believe it now. How a team that is supposed to be capable of challenging for promotion in two weeks time can lose to a group of strangers, who at best are League One standard, is beyond me. And not just lose either; 3-0 is a pretty one-sided result with no sort of silver lining.

I have seen the argument thrown about the Internet that this was the mighty Portsmouth`s last stand; a final hurrah for the Fratton Park faithful, the closing statement in the history of the club in it`s current form. It`s a very wonderful way to look at a crushing defeat at the hands of nobodies, and one I just cannot agree with. I doubt the trialists that made up the Pompey side had built up such an instant rapport with the couple of thousand fans in the ground, that their game was raised to such a level capable of beating a top level Championship club. No. No no no. We were just awful.

I have been positive throughout this pre-season, and felt vindicated in my decision to ignore the first few results, when we hit the ground against Morecambe and performed as expected. In this game, I thought we would spank the South Coast club into oblivion.

We cannot perform this way in competitive games. Simple as that. I hope this result has terrified any ounce of complacency or cockiness out of those white shirts, and that we wake up and work even harder. A loss to Tranmere, and I fear that our fans will be calling for Coyle`s head before the season even begins. They`ll be wrong to do so, but it won`t stop them.

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