As with last season Portsmouth recovered from a poor start by climbing away from the bottom three after Christmas, but they arrive at Loftus Road with one point from five games and a daunting run-in to come which has Jonny Barrett (@PompeyJonny) worried for their Championship status.

How's the season been for Pompey?

With the novelty of being back in the Championship having well and truly worn off, the entire season has been a massive slog. Before the season started I think most of us expected lower mid-table, with maybe an opportunity to sneak into the top half, but another season of piss-poor recruitment combined with an, at times, farcical injury list has prevented any momentum for more than a few games at a time.

The feeling was that we had so much attacking talent that even our on paper thin defence would be solid enough to see us comfortably to safety. The exact opposite has been true. Conor Chaplin was seen as an incredible coup but has only reached the dizzying heights of “ok” on a couple of occasions this season. Callum Lang’s hamstring was only good enough for a handful of appearances before departing to Preston on deadline day and Josh Murphy has barely featured and is now ruled out for the season.

The major issue tough has been Colby Bishop. You can basically pinpoint the turnaround of our season in October last year with his return to the pitch and subsequent 11 goals proving pivotal to our eventual survival. This season he has scored one goal from open play in the league and a penalty at Charlton, whilst somehow managing to score against fucking Arsenal in the cup. No one of any pedigree was brought in to compete with him, in the summer or in January and unsurprisingly, we find ourselves with only Wednesday below us in the goalscoring charts.

Pompey in the league so far…
Oxford 0-1 Pompey Segecic 38
Pompey 1-2 Norwich Segecic 84 – Darling 6, Sargent 14
West Brom 1-1 Pompey Johnston 26 – Bishop 56
Pompey 1-0 Preston Dozzell 41
Southampton 0-0 Pompey
Pompey 0-2 Sheff Wed Bannan 12, Brown 50
Ipswich 2-1 Pompey Philogene 9, Hirst 41 – Pack 90
Pompey 2-2 Watford Min-Hyeok 5, Segecic 79 – Louza 46, Vata 56
Pompey 1-0 Boro Min-Hyeok 23
Leicester 1-1 Pompey Ramsey 26 – Swift 58
Pompey 1-2 Coventry Kirk 90 – Thomas-Asante 30, 56
Pompey 0-1 Stoke Matthews og 70
Birmingham 4-0 Pompey Seung-Ho 9, Iwata 56, Klarer 61, Anderson 88
Pompey 0-0 Wrexham
Hull 3-2 Pompey Destan 27, Joseph 42, Gelhardt 79 – Devlin 15, 45
Portsmouth 3-1 Millwall Swanson 22, Segecic 51, Williams 89 – Ivanovic 72
Sheff Utd 3-0 Pompey Peck pen 41, Bamford 54, Hamer 73
Pompey 0-1 Bristol City Mehmeti 17
Swansea 1-0 Pompey Cullen 78
Pompey 2-1 Blackburn Lang 62, Bowat 79 – Ohashi 36
Derby 1-1 Pompey Matthews og 45 – Lang 6
Pompey 1-1 QPR Devlin 45 – Dunne 60
Pompey 2-1 Charlton Shaughnessy 69, Min-Hyeok 90 – Knibbs 90
Bristol City 5-0 Pompey Randell 11, Mehmeti 24, Twine 50, Armstrong 59, 90
Sheff Wed 0-1 Pompey Segecic 65
Watford 1-1 Pompey Doumbia 79 – Segecic 73
Pompey 1-1 Southampton Adams 77 – Scienza 57
Pompey 3-0 West Brom Chaplin 20, Alli 25, Adams 49
Preston 1-0 Pompey Devine 40
Pompey 0-1 Sheff Utd Brooks 90
Charlton 1-3 Pompey Fevrier 64 – Devlin 22, 56, Bishop pen 35
Millwall 1-3 Pompey De Norre 64 – Caballero 46, Swift 55, Pack 67
Wrexham 2-1 Pompey Smith 23, Cleworth 39 – Swanson 49
Pompey 0-1 Hull Crooks 73
Blackburn 1-1 Pompey Carter 90 – Ogilvie 84
Pompey 1-2 Swansea Brown 64 – Galbraith 26, Key 39
Pompey 0-1 Derby Szmodics 8

Looked like you'd got it together through Jan and Feb (as last season) including a big win at Millwall, but it's gone awry again of late, why?

The revival of late Jan and early Feb feels like a lifetime ago. The question of why it’s gone awry seems less relevant than how the fuck it came about in the first place. The signing of Ebou Adams revitalised a desperately flagging midfield; he just seemed to be absolutely everywhere those first few weeks but unsurprisingly he’s been unable to continue to drag the team on his back continuously. Millenic Alli looked like a world beater in the first few weeks after joining from Luton but he again has faded as defender’s appear to have worked him out (let him have time and he won’t hurt you).

The pattern of pretty much every game we play, home or away, seems to involve us having a load of the ball without ever much looking like doing anything. Particularly at home, stats often show us having 20+ shots in a game but those stats don’t reflect the fact that essentially next to none are ever clear-cut chances. In the games that we take a couple of chances, we’re often solid enough to see out results but heaven help us if we go behind. Case in point Derby on Monday- they went 1-0 up inside ten minutes and never really looked forward again because they knew they didn’t have to. Essentially- if you score against us, you’ve got every chance of winning the game.

Your injury list knocks even ours into a bit of a cocked hat, is it simply you've run out of players?

It’s true that our injury list has been about as bad as anyone’s could be. At one point, strangely just before back-to-back away wins against Charlton and Millwall, we had more injured first team players than we had available. I think it’s safe to say that if we’d had a fully fit Josh Murphy and Callum Lang all season, we wouldn’t be talking about relegation right now.

Pompey fans are becoming sick of the excuse however. This has been a theme ever since Mourinho has come, with extensive injury crises threatening to derail each of the last three seasons. One injury crisis is unlucky. Two feels cruel. Three and something else is clearly going on. Is it the training pitch at Roko? The pitch at Fratton Park? The medical staff? The strain Mourinho puts on his favourite players? The fact that after it being a problem for so long that we still have no fucking idea is inexcusable.

How much blame/responsibility on John Mousinho?

For this section I may as well just copy and paste what I answered in December. Has he been perfect? No. His in-game adjustments are frequently baffling and his insistence on sticking with Bishop up to despite his lack of goals could be one of the main things that will doom us. Having said that, the blame clearly lies in one place: the fucking ownership. Since their arrival in 2017, animosity towards the Eisners has never been this ubiquitous amongst the support. Despite the family’s net worth being well north of a billion, we are repeatedly told we cannot compete with the budgets of other clubs in the Championship.

What was done in January? What was left undone?

In January it was clear that big investment was needed otherwise we were doomed. With the exception of Ebou Adams - who at £500k was a bargain we could not afford to miss - no money was spent. With our starting striker and his backup on a combined two goals at the start of the window, the focus needed to be on a new number nine. If that meant overpaying due to January tax then frankly so be it - an extra couple of million on a striker would have been dwarfed by the financial implication of any relegation. Yet the closest we got was Jacob Brown, a deadline day loan signing from League One midtable Luton (our second loan signing of the window from them), who isn’t even an out an out number nine. To add insult to injury Callum Lang, who scored ten last season, was sold to Preston on deadline day. So, has Mousinho been perfect? Far from it. But given the lack of backing from those in charge. it’s frankly a bloody miracle we find ourselves outside the relegation zone at this point this season.

Summer Ins >>> Mark Kosznovsky, 23, CM, MTK Budapest, £1m >>> Josh Knight, 27, CB, Hannover, £1m >>> Franco Umeh-Chibueze, 20, RW, Palace, £500k >>> John Swift, 30, AM, West Brom, Free >>> Luke Le Roux, 25, CM, Varanmo (Sweden), Undisclosed >>> Adrian Segecic, 21, RW, Sydney FC, £500k >>> Florian Bianchini, 25, RW, Swansea, Loan >>> Josef Bursik, 25, GK, Club Brugge, Free >>> Makenzie Kirk, 21, CF, St Johnstone, Undisclosed >>> Conor Chaplin, 28, AM, Ipswich, Loan >>> Yang Min-Hyeok, 19, AM, Spurs, Loan

Winter Outs >>> Tom McIntyre, 27, CB, Aberdeen, Free >>> Callum Lang, 27, RW, Preston, Undisclosed >>> Jacob Farrell, 23, LB, Western Sydney, Loan

Player of the season candidates?

Player of the Season candidates probably start and end with Terry Devlin. He went from being used as an emergency right back last season to making the position his own this. It probably says more about us than him that he’s our second top goalscorer this season, but he offers so much going forward and has managed to link up well with an ever changing cast of wingers to play in front of him this season. Maybe not the most gifted defender but what he lacks in tactical nous and experience he more than makes up for with effort- he’s never seen a 50/50 he didn’t fancy. He was apparently subject to deadline day from Wrexham which comes as no surprise. Whether we stay up or not he won’t be here next season- just have to hope we can get £5 million+ for him.

Weak links?

It really hurts to keep having to hammer Colby because he’s done so much for the club but he clearly isn’t a Championship striker now, if he ever was. Understandably he’s been asked to play through it this season due to the lack of other options but if we go down it’ll be the lack of goals that does it. The midfield also looked incredibly lightweight until the signing of Adams- you get the feeling that any injury to him would affectively spell relegation. One a more team level, the inability to defend set pieces has been an embarrassment. Derby’s goal from a corner was the 17th time we’ve conceded from a dead ball this season- Keith Andrews presumably has a Dorian Gray style painting of our set piece coach Michael Doyle in his attic.

Will you stay up? Consequences if you don't?

Each time I’ve written for LFW I’ve always reminded defiant in my belief that we’d stay up, even at points when we’d found ourselves in the relegation zone. This is the worst I’ve ever felt across the last two seasons. We can’t score goals. We can’t defend set pieces. Our run in- which includes Boro and Coventry away- looks far and away more difficult than any of our rivals. All of that usually adds up to being the team that goes down. That’s what my head tells me.

And yet, deep down, for some stupid reason I can’t logically explain, I think we’ll do it. Never underestimate John Mousinho’s ability to get more out of a squad than the sum of its parts. Given how ludicrous we’ve been last couple of seasons it wouldn’t surprise me if the run in saw us beat Boro and Cov away and lose at home to Oxford. We easily could go, mind you. One positive is the recruitment has been so unambitious this season that we’ve probably got the spine of a League One promotion team ready to go. Previously I’d hoped any relegation might have persuaded the Disney Dinlos to piss off and sell the club but Eisner’s recent decision to split up his shares amongst his sons means that seems unlikely.

Saturday will be massive- the last away game that looks winnable. You lot are somehow less reliable than us so who knows? But if we do go down, you can have Dozzell back for £5 million. Mate’s rates.

Links >>> Portsmouth official website >>> Fratton Park Ground Guide >>> True Blue Army – Forum >>> P04Cast – Podcast >>> Pompey Chimes – Forum >>> The News – Local Press

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Pictures - Reuters Connect

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