Pompey’s search for a maiden win in league 1 enters a second month, this time Oldham beat is in a crap match that had nil-nil written all over it.
The ‘star’ of the show was the man in the middle, he was as clueless an official that I have seen at Fratton park, ably assisted by two like minded assistants, he contrived to miss easy decisions and insist on every free kick to be played within an inch of the offense occurring.
Pompey were not the only team to suffer by his inability to see, in the dying moments one decision summed him up, the tubby Croft who was running down the clock smashed the ball into Connolly, the ball ricocheted off both his legs and went over the by-line, he still gave Pompey a goal kick!
Added to the two sending offs, he made a real mess of the game, ruining it for the spectators.
All this though should not take away from a poor Pompey performance, the blues created little and were often caught in possession whilst dwelling on the ball.
Pompey did have the best opportunity in the first half, Liam Walker played in Obita who rushed the chance and fired straight at the keeper when he could of carried the ball closer.
Pompey played the ball around nicely enough first half but with no cutting edge, Oldham were little better either, content to keep it simple.
The second half was when all the controversy really fired up, Oldham had already clipped a post when the took a bizarre lead, Grounds fired in a cross, Ertl made a hash of trying to cut it out, then it simply drifted inside of Andersen’s post, Og maybe, preventable, yes.
Pompey had little time to recover from that setback when they went down to ten men, Obita had been given little protection all game, when he was man handled yet again, he reacted angrily although making little or no contact, the fans were waiting for a free kick in Pompey’s favour when the ref flashed a red card, the fourth official got involved and Oldham got the same rough deal, even getting the wrong bloke sent off for good measure!
The game then settled into a routine of scrappy play and constant whistling from the ref, Ashley Harris was on to try and make an impact, he almost provided it too, cutting in from the left and firing in a low shot, the keeper pushed it wide, so of course it was a goal kick then!
That was that then, another game without points, a first without a goal and one to forget!
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