I never like playing Pompey as they have a bad habit of getting the better of us. No wins in 2022 and two points out of nine is as bad as it sounds but I think we'll turn it around this afternoon. This week's news has been positive with O'Nien and McGeady making progress and of course our two new signings. Batth – not sure how to pronounce his name - sounds like just what we needed, a strong defender who'll give us the steel we've lacked for holding on to leads and not throwing away points in the closing stages. From what I've read about Roberts from fans of his previous clubs he seems like another good signing – a tricky attacker who can score goals. It's quite possible that we'll see both of them at some stage today as well as Trai Hume. Would I have Defoe back? Definitely. There's still very little in it between the top four, though of course Wigan's games in hand may well tell, but there are stacks of games left to play. With a strong squad and injured players coming back as we go along, there's plenty of room for optimism despite the disappointment of the last three games. I'll be listening to the match on SAFSEE so I hope it's behaving itself. Match prediction: 3-2 to us.
I got the team-news around 2.00 and there were two changes from last week's starting eleven. Batth and Evans were in while Wright and Pritchard were out injured. Trai Hume was on the bench again but Roberts wasn't in the squad. I tuned into SAFSEE feeling a bit apprehensive. Our fans were in good voice.
We kicked off attacking the Roker End and Benno described the pitch surface as 'lively' and I didn't like the sound of that. Portsmouth seemed to be doing most of the early pressing and with Wycombe taking an early lead away to Morecambe things weren't going too well. We hardly put anything together in the first ten minutes and Hoffmann almost gifted them a goal by throwing the ball straight to Harness but mercifully he shot over the bar. Pompey won the first corner close to the quarter-hour mark and Benno said we looked like we didn't know what we were doing as we immediately conceded a second corner. Harness put that corner out so we won a little breathing space. I felt we were going to go a goal behind unless we rejigged our formation as our midfield sounded non-existent. About twenty minutes in Embleton had a decent effort on goal and that gave the crowd something to cheer about at last. Elsewhere Wigan were 2-0 up. Flanagan gave away another free-kick and referee David Rock gave him a warning via captain Evans. The first real mention that Batth had was when he and Hoffmann got their signals crossed and conceded a corner. As we passed the half-hour mark it had been a very underwhelming performance by us so far but Pompey hadn't been able to capitalize on that so we were still in it. A good run and cross by Gooch just failed to land right for Dajaku and that was more like it. Next thing Dajaku really should have rolled the ball across to Stewart instead of going for glory with a shot from an acute angle. We were enjoying a better period at any rate with Neil and Dajaku getting on the ball a lot more. We took the lead five minutes from the break when after we'd pressurized Carter, Stewart fed Embleton and he shot home into the bottom right corner. We won our first corner of the game and Batth came up for it but Bazunu in goal caught it. It remained 1-0 at half-time and despite playing badly for the first half-hour we'd finally upped our game and finished the stronger side. Morecambe had equalized against Wycombe so the world was looking decidedly brighter...for a while.
The opening stages of the second-half were scrappy but Lincoln equalized against Plymouth and that was more good news for us. Flanagan became the first player to receive a yellow-card about ten minutes in after being caught on the hop again. Neil had a shot off-target and I didn't fancy us defending a one-goal lead in the later stages so of course I hoped for a second before long. Gillingham pulled one back against Wigan but Wycombe went 2-1 up against Morecambe. As we reached the hour-mark I was feeling nervous and had to start pacing around the room. I wondered whether we'd make a change before long and Winchester is a player I always like to see coming on. We continued to do most of the pressing and elsewhere Morecambe equalized again to make it 2-2 and soon they were 3-2 ahead, which was great news for us. Pompey made a double change with twenty minutes to go but there was no sign of us making a substitution. Gillingham made it 2-2 against Wigan which put us top of the league for a few minutes and Pompey had barely troubled Hoffmann this half so things were looking ominously good for us. We entered the final ten minutes and there had still been no changes but shortly afterwards Winchester replaced Embleton, who received a good round of applause. Our fans were still giving great support but I'm sure plenty of them were as nervous as me. O'Brien came on for Dajaku with only a couple of minutes left. We conceded a corner in the last minute from which Hirst headed over and next thing five minutes of added time were announced which I really could have done without. Portsmouth had started doing most of the pressing but we held tight at the back and it ended 1-0.
Three points against a bogey-team, a clean sheet and Wycombe lost so we've got to be happy about that.
