Thus far this season the Carling Cup has been a bright spot in Pompey's dark an dreary campaign.
11-2 was the combined scoreline heading into the quarter finals and now, the dream of salvaging something from this mess of a season has died on the boots of four of Villa's finest. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Maybe not.

Drawing hurts. Losing hurts. Saturday's game against Bolton, that hurt. And it hurt bad. It seemed to be one thing after another for Pompey on Saturday. And our hopes of turning things around were squashed by Gary Cahill's *ahem* goal.

What probably hurt worse was seeing goals from Liverpool and Arsenal and Manchester City flash on the screen while we struggled against a side I know we are capable of beating.

Now, I could blame the ref for allowing Cahill's *ahem* goal, or I could bemoan the, put in the most polite terms possible, "soft" penalty that was given. I could point out that it should have finished 2-1 in our favour.

The boss called for the takeover that has dominated the summer headlines on the South coast to end. And I for one am standing with Paul on this one. This needs to be resolved now.

Fortunately for Pompey it's been a relatively quiet summer at "The Fortress". With the two biggest story lines being bright futures and a loved one moving on. I don't know about the rest of you lads but I hope that it stays that way.

Glen Johnson will be moving to Liverpool for about £18.5 million. Or at least that's what they say. On top of that you can add Peter Crouch feeling uncertain about his future. Then put 15 players out of contract on top of that and Pompey is in some kind of mess. Or at least that's what it looks like.

I've been wondering lately if anyone cares anymore.