Went into this match with a fair degree of optimism. A winnable game at last and surely time for the recovery to start, despite the pairing of Roque Jr and Morris in midfield (leading us to pine for the return of Paul Okon) at half-time I thought we were still in with a chance. The second half was possibly as bad as I've ever seen a Leeds side play.

Fratton Park is not a Premiership ground. 2 portaloos for all the Leeds fans and a shared entrance with the home fans coupled with thoroughly incompetent police (more of them later) do not make for a good day out. Kick off was delayed for 30 minutes with various rumours why, trouble outside, crowd congestion, floodlight failure and ref stuck in traffic were all mentioned.

We started, eventually, with Milner playing behind Smith up-front.  Johnson and Pennant wide of Roque and Morris (neither of whom I ever want to see in a Leeds shirt again) and Matteo and Duberry providing another centre-back combination to try out. The first half was pretty scrappy and we weren't particularly outclassed, although Roque was strolling around and tidy with his passes when in possession him and Morris were utterly anonymous without it and this against Pompey's reserve midfield of Sherwood and O'Neill. Olembe and Johnson were linking well on the left, Milner was tidy and Smith looked a threat when he ran at them. Unfortunately our defence also looked a mess and it wasn't too much of surprise when they scored from a corner.

As the sinking feeling began to sweep over you, we wondered if the game was going to drift away. But within a couple of minutes and need move ended with Smith dinking the ball over the keeper and we were right back in the game.  Perfectly ordinary goal celebrations led to the Hampshire police, deploying all their new equipment riot shields, helmets and video cameras, marching in front of us as if a riot was imminent - it wasn't we were just happy. The game continued and we really should have gone ahead when Smith set up Johnson who hit his shot too close to Hislop. Then in the last minute a speculative shot went in and we were in our usual situation, behind.

Second half was a shambles. It started innocuously enough and Pennant had a chance to equalise but from the moment Robinson failed to stop a volley, from Hayden Foxe for Christ sake, we totally fell apart. The rest of the game is something of a blur, we kept singing and Pomey kept scoring, with our defence being run through at will. When the 4th went in all knew that Reid was doomed, think by the 5th and 6th we were numbed. Despite all this I didn't hear a single "Reid out" type chant. Police obviously couldn't believe we were still making some noise and deemed it as a threat and sent the riot squad back in to stare at us. They also decided no-one could leave, so Niggy who can hardly be deemed at threat was forced to stay till the end even though the late kick off meant she was going to miss her train.

At the end of the game, a still largely bemused crowd was forced to stay behind for 20 minutes and sing "You only won 6-1" at the Pompey fans wandering past gesturing towards us. Our mood was further darkened as we were then let out and whilst about 3/4s of the Leeds fans were allowed to just wander off. Those of us heading towards the station were made to wait another 20 minutes whilst the Police surrounded us with Horses, Dogs and Riot gear. We then moved off incredibly slowly as the Police were walking backwards so as to not take their eyes off us, and the Police were constantly screaming at each other as it wasn't going quite as well as they had practised it. Throughout fans wandered off the side and by the time I got fed up with it and 'escaped' there were probably only about half the Leeds fans they had started with still in the escort.

Ridiculous.

Where do we go next (apart from Cambridge on Tuesday). Reid will probably get sacked and it seems that Paul Hart is the only candidate. We were truly awful, but I don't see where the improvement is going to come from. Generally the players are trying their hardest, they are just not good enough, and with no money there is no-one to bring in. I'd have probably played Camara and Harte instead of Duberry and Roque but generally Reid has picked decent teams.

Yesterday was the first day I thought relegation was a probability rather than a possibility and I think it may take a small miracle to keep us up now.

Scores

Matt