View: Portsmouth into ‘these games’ territory that could dictate January success
Portsmouth have several winnable Championship games in December, the results of which could affect the club’s transfer plans either way.
I distinctly recall the collective optimism around the city when September – and the club’s brutal run of opening fixtures – came to an end. Our October schedule was long mooted to be the ‘real’ litmus test as to how Pompey would fare in the second tier, facing many of the sides with whom he would be directly competing, instead of the top table.
October started with a midweek trip to Stoke. We were 6-1 down before the hour mark. Some season this would turn out to be. Since then, anything has been an improvement but points have been gradually collected at too slow a rate.
The Championship has been a real eye-opener, and any potential naivety from the board has now been evaporated, though Michael Eisner’s firm assurance the club will absolutely not be relegated is blindly optimistic if not necessary to say.
If it’s not blind optimism, then maybe there are irons in the fire in January. Investment into the squad is integral – Pompey fans feel as if there is one crack at this. I am firmly of the belief that with all the graft and turbulence over the years to return to this level, to go down with a whimper through not pulling on the pursestrings enough for established players would be a shameful disappointment.
December yielding winnable games
Following a bizarre double dose of postponements and the passing-up of a two-goal lead away at Swansea City – albeit we’ll take the point in the grand scheme – December’s fixtures begin with a Fratton Park clash with Bristol City.
Liam Manning was widely anticipated to become the Blues boss back in early 2023 following the sacking of Danny Cowley, and John Mousinho was eventually appointed into his first coaching role – to the eye rolls of more of us than we’d care to admit nearly two years down the line.
He brings a 15th-placed Robins side 120 miles east to the coast, who recently recovered from successive defeats to batter Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth Argyle 4-0 at Ashton Gate.
Argyle were naive defensively to the point Rooney publicly lambasted his players, and any lapse from Pompey will allow Bristol City to do the same here.
But on the whole, the game is for sure an exciting prospect for three points – as I explained to Bristol Live’s Dan Carter earlier this week [5 December], the dynamic trio of Josh Murphy, Callum Lang and Matt Ritchie are vastly crucial to Mousinho’s shape and are likely to remain so for the long haul should they remain fit.
Another home clash on Tuesday [10 December], this time against an unpredictable Norwich side who boast the mesmerising Borja Sainz, swiftly follows Saturday’s game, before Derby, Coventry and Watford precede the reverse fixture against Manning’s Robins to conclude 2024.
That “these games” attitude heading into October – which largely backfired – is strangely familiar again now. The cut and thrust of the Championship appears something to which Pompey are now slightly more hardened, and can end the calendar year on a high. Results in December could be the deciding factor of potential targets fancying the switch to play in blue from January.
The year 2024 goes down in Portsmouth history
No one in Portsmouth will ever forget 2024 from a footballing perspective.
April of this year was peak Pompey that we had barely experienced since the days of cup finals, European nights and a sloping Fratton pitch adorned with my generation’s cult heroes – or “Barclaysmen” as now dubbed by the masses.
The contrast of League One and the Championship has been frustrating, personified by Conor Shaughnessy’s emotional winner to clinch promotion against Barnsley at the Fratton End; he has since been injured for a mysteriously long period while our defence too often fall to pieces against the EFL’s best.
Someone will look and write back on 2024-25, however it turns out, in such a reflective way as this next summer and could either be discussing a season in which the club enjoyed an excellent January to move clear of the drop zone; a great escape similar to that of 2005-06; or a dismal campaign in which we wasted our hard-earned opportunity.
Hopefully not the latter. But at least we have a club, at least we don’t have 51 players in a single season on one-month rolling deals, and at least the old island city packs the park out for each league game without fail.
In other Portsmouth news, Andre Dozzell has admitted where the team have suffered on the pitch.
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