I’m feeling a confidence that I rarely feel so early in season

NEW season, new manager, renewed hopes, a united support, excellent signings and the retention of some crucial players — all in all, an excellent way to put the heartache of Moscow behind us and look forward to a season full of promise.

I am trying not to get too carried away with the result against Portsmouth — despite the goals, the one touch football, the overlapping fullbacks and the extra dimension Deco gives us. It is difficult though; after the ‘problems’ of last season, it’s good to have a manager that I can believe in; a manager that I trust to have an idea of what he is doing; a manager that the players obviously respect, a manager that is animated and passionate on the touchline. Even Abramovich was smiling.

Pompey however, were complicit in their own undoing — if that was the kind of performance that they are regularly going to turn in, they will come nowhere near matching the exploits of last season.