Vi ramte igen ikke niveauet.
En kedelig stime fik en ende tirsdag aften i Burton-on-Trent. Desværre var det ikke vores da Pompey måtte på fra banen uden points efter et 1-2 nederlag som efterlader os på en 13. plads i League One.
Danny Cowley gav chancen til de samme elleve som startede mod Charlton. Kun på bænken var der en enkelt ændring i form af Michael Jacobs, der tog pladsen fra Miguel Azeez.
Hos værterne var ex-Pompey spilleren Bryn Morris lidt overraskende ikke i truppen til kampen.
Den officielle kamprapport
Eftertanken
Tirsdag aftens nederlag efterlod os selvsagt med flere spørgsmål end svar, og mens der var opløftende momenter i kampene mod Plymouth og Charlton så var den optiske fremgang desværre forsvundet mod Burton. Især må det give panderynker at vi for tredje kamp på stribe lukkede to mål ind. Derudover er det skuffende, at vi i forvejen kendte hjemmeholdets gameplan med det høje pres, og alligevel ikke virkede forberedte på det. Her blev det tydeligt, at holdet er mentalt ramt når modgangen sætter ind eller vi møder en modstander, som bare sidder på os fra start. Vi mangler troen men det er op til os selv at finde den igen. Det bliver til gengæld ikke nødvendigvis let, for oktober måneds program er mildest talt tricky med modstandere som Sunderland, Rotherham og Ipswich.
Et hurtigt liga-overblik
Der var flere store sejre denne aften, hvor Sunderland, Ipswich og Oxford alle vandt med fire mål eller mere. Topopgøret mellem Wigan og Sheffield Wednesday endte med tre points til udeholdet mens sejre til nedrykkerne fra Rotherham og Wycombe katapulterede de to klubber op i top 6 igen. I bunden af rækken forværrede Charlton deres situation ved at gå ned på egen bane med 1-4 til Bolton.
Kommentarer fra Danny Cowley
“Burton pressed the ball with a huge intensity, energy and aggression, while we couldn’t find solutions to that. There are times when you’ve got to show a bit of humility, win your duels and really earn the right to play. I don’t think we did that and we needed to find ways to get them off us, whether that was going down the sides or around them. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the space to play our football on this occasion and ultimately came up short. We made three changes after going 2-0 down because we looking for more passion and fight – I think the boys who came on provided that. It was a good goal from Reeco. I’m just disappointed because we work really hard and the people of Portsmouth deserve more than the run we’re giving them at the moment.”
“We now have to be big enough to accept the criticism that is coming our way and take that on the chin. It’s about looking for the solutions to find a way that we can respond – and that’s exactly what we’ll do. I’m a fighter – I always have been. I’ve never given up on anything in my life and don’t intend to start now.”
Et par ord fra vores anfører Lee Brown
“The number of points that we’ve picked up in the past few games simply isn’t good enough. All the boys know that, so now we’ve just got to get the shutters down and start to find some solutions pretty quickly. This run of form we’ve been on lately is a real reality check for us and so we have to come out fighting. There have been some positive aspects to our performances in the past three games, but we’ve still come away with just two points. When you’re playing for this football club, we know you have to be doing better than that. That’s all there is to it. Our defensive record was good at the start of the season, but now we’re conceding two goals a game, so that has to improve. There are times when it can be hard to put your finger on why things go wrong, but the intensity certainly wasn’t there. A lot of people have travelled a long way on a Tuesday night and have to go to work in the morning – we’ve let them down. It will be a test of character for us on Saturday because people will soon realise what Fratton can be like if we play that way again.”
League One, Pirelli Stadium, 28. september 2021
Burton Albion – Portsmouth 2-1 (0-0)
32. minut: 1-0 Thomas O’Connor
60. minut: 2-0 Daniel Jebbison
64. minut: 2-1 Reeco Hackett-Fairchild
Opstillingen (3-4-3): Bazunu; Freeman (Hackett-Fairchild ‘61), Raggett, Williams; Romeo, Tunnicliffe (Thompson ‘61), Morrell, Brown (anfører); Harness, Marquis (Harrison ‘61), Curtis
På bænken: Bass, Downing, Jacobs, Thompson, Hirst, Hackett-Fairchild og Harrison
Advarsler: Raggett, Brown, Hackett-Fairchild og Harness
Udvisning: Ingen
Tilskuere: 2.810
Post-match interview med Danny Cowley
Kampens højdepunkter
