A quick check on Soccerbase tells me that the side we played yesterday cost £28.2 million in transfer fees to assemble and, when you consider that they didn't spend a penny of that on Hreidarsson, Distin, Campbell and Kanu, you can only begin to imagine what the Fratton Park wage bill must be like!
Put in those terms, City deserve tremendous praise for running them so close yesterday and I must admit that I find the rather patronising stuff I have been reading in the media and amongst the pundits today along the lines of us being plucky but limited losers pretty disappointing. Yes, at times the likes of Diarra, Kranjcar and Kanu were able to show a level of technical ability that was beyond our team, but that's what Portsmouth's millions can give them. Anyway, by the standards of the league we are in, I think the play of our back and midfield fours has been largely effective this season whilst showing a level of technical quality that was higher than most of our rivals - I don't think there was much at all between the opposing back and midfield fours/fives yesterday.
The problem is though that there are two other departments to any team and in these areas the problems that have plagued us all season came back to haunt us in, possibly, the biggest game in our history.
The goalkeeping position has been a bone of contention all season long and it remained so right until the end. Now, I am not saying that Enckelman has been a poor signing, but there have been occasions during his time with us where he has ridden his luck and yesterday may have had an element of pay back time about it. Again, I am not saying that the winning goal was all his fault (our left sided players and, our left back in particular, could have done more to ensure that Utaka's cross was blocked at source) but, Enckelman did knock the ball into an area that made it impossible for Kanu to miss and, for that at least, he has to carry his share of responsibility for it. Given our financial resources, I wouldn't argue against us signing Enckelman permanently, but I think it is so important that we get another keeper in (probably on loan) that will give him the genuine competition for a first team place that he hasn't really had this year.
However it is in the striking department that, just as in the last nine months, we really came up short. For a while yesterday, the converted winger who has been far and away our best forward this season, threatened to cause Portsmouth no end of problems, but, they have an experienced and very able defence and they managed to figure out a way to keep Paul Parry pretty quiet from then on. Alongside Parry however, I am afraid that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink turned in exactly the sort of performance I had been dreading and half expecting from him. Hasselbaink did a few good things, but the ball never stuck with him and there were so many times when Portsmouth were able to start counter attacks while he lay on the floor having been robbed of the ball - overall, he posed no sort of goal threat and gave Distin and Campbell very few problems.
I started off by mentioning the difference in financial resources between us and Portsmouth, but the fact of the matter is that last summer we had the opportunity of spending half of the Chopra fee (at least) on new players. Now isn't the time to be too critical of our manager and chairman , but, with the season having now ended, one of the main lessons of the campaign for me is that Messrs Ridsdale and Jones did not spend that money well and, sadly, there are increasing signs that they intend to repeat their folly this summer!
Anyway, what I really want to emphasise is my thanks to everyone at the club (including those I have been critical of) for their part in making 17 May 2008 the most memorable day in forty five years of supporting Cardiff City. In particular I thank the team - you only had to see how disappointed they were during their "lap of honour" to realise how much they put into the ninety minutes. I thought as a group of supporters we were magnificent (was very impressed by the Pompey support as well) and, despite the fact that they ran out of beer (I mean proper beer!), Wembley stadium itself was tremendous. What wasn't good about Wembley though was it's miserable location and awful access by road - because of that, I would say give me the Millennium Stadium any time!