As I sat contently listening to Express FM on Saturday, with Pompey Live playing, I was ready to be entertained by a Pompey team, who were few points from the playoffs with a game in hand. With the home team coming straight off the mark, Pompey were put under immediate pressure. The Wombles of Wimbledon went ahead just after half an hour of play, with Andy Frampton capitalising on yet another defensive error. Nevertheless, I expected the team to rally round and fight back. Instead, they seem to roll over and give in, something many Pompey fans will never do.
Wimbledon continued to press, looking for a second, to make their lead a lot more comfortable. With Pompey counterattacking very well, it looked as though a goal may be snatched back, which in my eyes, would have been a result, in comparison to recent weeks’ performances. Alas, this goal never came, and Wimbledon continued to look threatening going forward, as does every team in this league against our defence. This continued pressing, resulted in Frampton scoring again the 74th minute, followed by another from Sammy Moore just 8 minutes later. With calls for ‘Whittingham out’ already spiralling around Twitter, the nail certainly went in the coffin when the Dons made it 4-0 in added time. In my eyes, a well deserved victory for the home side, and quite frankly appalling from Portsmouth.
A lot of the players signed for this season were title winners, play-off finalists, and catalysts for promotion teams in both League 1 & 2. However, these credentials don’t seem to have materialised this year. With 15 games played, the Blues have won, drawn, and lost 5 games a piece. Baring this in mind, many of the draws (Accrington Stanley, Torquay) were winnable, with some good displays, but no end product. Again, the defeats suffered have mostly been self-inflicted, with five or six goals being conceded due to defensive errors, Plymouth Argyle away springing to mind.
Admittedly, we were told to give this team time to gel, and we did just that. No qualms over a 4-1 loss at the hands of Oxford United, nor the 1-0 defeat to Fleetwood Town (who are they?), but losing in the manner we have been doing in recent weeks, conceding ELEVEN goals in TWO WEEKS, just isn’t acceptable. No other team in this league have scored as many goals as Pompey, but no other team has conceded as many either. Admittedly, it could be teething problems, adapting to life in League Two, but as I previously stated, most of this squad have played in this division, and are said to be at the top of their games’, so where are the results?
In comes the issue with management. Does Guy have enough experience as a manager? For me, no. He seems to prefer the coaching role, which has now been taken over by David Connolly, and the talk of Ricardo Rocha at training suggests he is also here to coach. So where do we go from here? I would like to give Whittingham a few weeks, in the run up to Christmas to decide the future of the club. Any changes made after, or during January will be a waste, as that is the time to make any vital additions to the squad.
Many names have already been circulating, with Martin Allen springing up on several occasions. Another is former Pompey manager, Steve Cotterill, who has hinted he has ‘unfinished business’, and is ‘jealous of how well the club is run’. Perhaps his ‘hoof-ball’ style would be effective in the division? It certainly has been for other clubs playing against us. My one concern with his appointment would be his history with youngsters. Remember Marlon Pack and Matt Ritchie? Both now very successful, but sold for pennies by Cotterill, only to replace them with Kitson and Brown. Another manager is Neil Warnock, a person many Pompey fans seem to dislike. He recently stated in an interview that he ‘would love to work for Pompey’. Perhaps a complete re-shape is on the cards, with an experienced manager taking a Director of Football role, overseeing the manager? These are all things that must have been, and still are, going through Ian McInnes head after he walked out of The Cherry Red Records Stadium after The Wombles fourth goal went in.
Onward and upwards, in Pompey We Trust!
Written by Harry Davis – Harry tweets at @MrDavishPFC.
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