Andy Munro watches Blues beat Postsmouth.
This was the sort of convincing victory that Bluenoses had been waiting for. Often successful teams start off in the way they want to go on and Blues certainly did that. They could have had three in the opening half-hour, which included a tame missed penalty by an otherwise impressive Jay Stanfield. Luckily, it was the equally impressive Paik Seung-ho who was on hand to score the opener with a header following a corner.
The match then descended into a slight lull with Pompey having a decent share of the ball without really threatening. Part of the reason for that was a towering performance from Christoph Klarer, who just about won everything in the air
However, Blues started off the second half with renewed momentum and it was no surprise when Tomoki Iwata capped a fine performance with a headed flick-on from a corner. More goals followed with Klarer capping a fine performance by also heading home a corner and then Keshi Anderson, who was a bit unlucky to be rested, capping a decent cameo as substitute to score the fourth.
The Blues defence was generally very solid although if one was being hyper-critical maybe Alex Cochrane could have made more early overlaps instead of being almost square on to receive the ball, but in fairness,he is no Ethan Laird. A concern was a lively Patrick Roberts being withdrawn at half-time apparently due to injury but the midfield were generally very much in tune with the front two of Stanfield and Marvin Ducksch, who at last showed real promise of good things to come. A word of praise also for Kyogo Furuhashi, who came and on worked diligently, only to be denied a long-awaited goal by a marginal offside decision .
We are now firmly in the top half and a win against fourth-placed Millwall would be another giant step forward.
