Portsmouth player ratings vs Preston – Josh Murphy shines, 5/10 teammate disappoints
Portsmouth won a close game 1-0 against Preston North End at Fratton Park on Saturday.
Andre Dozzell scored the opener from a well-worked corner as Portsmouth took a deserved 1-0 lead at half-time.
In the second half, Pompey were a lot worse. Preston had most of the attacking impetus as the game wore on, but they couldn’t really do much with it. Credit to Portsmouth for defending so solidly.
Below, we rate the Portsmouth players out of 10 after this scrappy winning performance.
Josh Murphy’s natural class shines through
Josh Murphy has been linked with a last-minute move to Leicester City this week. This news story will be the stuff of nightmares for Portsmouth fans, because the winger is clearly the team’s most talented player.
He showed it again on Saturday at Fratton Park.
Everything good from Pompey came down their left wing, with Murphy at the heart of it. Based on his performances in a blue shirt, surely he can’t be sold at any price.
Florian Bianchini works hard, but needs to work on decision-making
Florian Bianchini is Mousinho’s first-choice right winger in the absence of Callum Lang for Portsmouth out side.
Lang could be missing for at least eight weeks after his hamstring surgery, but Bianchini will have step up his decision-making if he wants to remain in the team beyond that.
Bianchini works hard for Portsmouth and gets in great positions, but his decision-making always lets him down at the crucial moment.
Bianchini was replaced by Luke Le Roux after 63 minutes to make the team more defensively solid.
Portsmouth player ratings vs Preston
Schmid – 7
Swanson – 6
Poole – 6
Shaughnessy – 7
Ogilvie – 7
Swift – 6
Dozzell – 7
Bianchini -5
Segecic – 6
Murphy – 6
Bishop – 7
Substitutes
Le Roux (for Bianchini 63′) – 5
Knight (for Swanson 78′) – 5
Waddingham (for Segecic 90′) – 5
Devlin (for Bishop 90′) – 5
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