I read my thesaurus from cover to cover to find a word that best describes the match yesterday, after much perusal, turgid was the word I chose.
After the massive disappointment of Thursday and Fridays court case, the Pompey fans still turned up in decent numbers yesterday in the hope of some cheer on the pitch, Preston though had come with a game plan, to take a point back to lancashire, this they achieved, not a great spectacle but such is football, it takes two teams to play open expansive football.
Pompey went for a 4-3-3 formation, Jervis and Allan joining McLeod in an attacking looking formation.
The tone was really set in the first 5 minutes, Pompey broke quickly down the right and Jervis squared to McLeod in a 3 against two situation, Pompey’s top scorer though inexplicably let himself get caught offside when it was so easy to have stayed on, the flag went up and another day of intense frustration was on the roll.
If that moment was a pointer, the next drive it home, McLeod went down rather easily in the box after a nudge in the back, after much protestation from the away contingent, he dusted himself off and took aim from 12 yards, his blast though cannoned back off the crossbar and Pompey had missed their fourth penalty of the season, such benevolence we can ill afford.
From then on in the game settled into a proper midfield stalemate, Eastwood made one fantastic double save to highlight his undoubted potential, Pompey themselves relying on a couple of long range blasts from Jervis and then Allan to try and force a goal.
Half time arrived in familiar fashion, Pompey goalless and the crowd frustrated.
The second half had a little more to it, but little being the highlighted word, Preston still were there to contain, Pompey pushed it around nicely enough but the final third was lacking in quality, a goal looked as likely as a Pompey takeover any time soon.
Scott Allan almost provided the breakthrough, his well struck shot had the north end keeper going the wrong way, however he flung out an arm and the goal bound effort was deflected away.
0-0 it was then, another pen miss and another blank day, a clean sheet was a bonus but the winless run rolled on, a couple of pointers though, Pompey need to find a reliable dead ball man, that is stating the bleeding obvious, and what the hell has happened to Dumbuya? Early season he was the most exciting player on the pitch, now he goes sideways if he is not going backwards, beside all the off field problems, people should remember that football is meant to be entertainment, that I’m afraid was anything but!
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