Michael Pantling mener at fra nå av kan det bare gå oppover for Pompey.

MENINGER: Vår medlem nummer 42, Michael Pantling, er bosatt i Danmark, men pleier å reise over til England for å se Pompey flere ganger i sesongen enn noen andre av våre medlemmer. Han har da også sesongkort på Fratton Park.

Han deler jevnlig sine tanker og meninger om Pompey med oss. Denne gangen oppsummerer Michael tingenes tilstand i det vi har en lengre kamppause.

LES OGSÅ: Et av de beste Pompey-lagene jeg har sett på lenge

The only way is up!

The latter part of 2022 was a huge disappointment after such a promising start. Whilst it had become rare to lose at home we weren’t winning either. Our play was neither effective nor attractive. The Cowley’s had lost the support of the crowd who clearly expected more, much more.

It is difficult for me to say precisely what had gone wrong not least because I could not see any obvious areas where we were particularly weak, on the contrary I have been generally satisfied with the quality of the players both permanent and loanees and for the first time in many years could not identify any players who, in my opinion, were not good enough individually.

The home performance against Milton Keynes was particularly dismal and the only bright spot for me was the introduction of Denver Hume which gave a small spark to the attack.

The current squad has a good blend of attacking energy and experience in defence, particularly when Marlon Pack is available.

Maybe what is missing is a more experienced attacking player who can let the youngsters do all the running and just use experience to be in the right place at the right time and get us the goals we so desperately need.

Fratton Park

The ground is looking much better for the money that has been spent and that investment has to be appreciated but we have been in League 1 for far too long. We still have enough games left to get to the play-offs and although the January transfer window is never the best time to buy – money needs to be spent on the team.

This gives a bit of a dilemma regarding the appointment of a new manager, I can understand the chairman wanting to be cautious with the appointment to ensure that the right person is hired but whoever that person is would want to influence any changes in the squad and that window of opportunity is getting shorter by the day.

Some interesting candidates have been touted (by the press) and as an outsider it is not completely clear who is being considered and who isn’t. I would be happy to see Leam Richardson appointed as he knows the club well from his time as Paul Cook’s assistant and was generally liked by the fans. He did a good job at Wigan. Chris Wilder is also a manager that I consider to be highly competent but without a Pompey connection. I would not like to see Lee Boyer as Pompey manager. Lee Bradbury has the advantage of close association with Pompey and he is probably much cheaper than most of the other candidates but lacks managerial experience at our level (and above). While not wishing to under value the contribution of Andy Awford or Guy Whittingham at times of great need, their extreme efforts were not enough to compensate for lack of experience.

One of the recent positives that still gives me much hope in our ability to climb the table was our recent trip to Spurs.

Match wise, it wasn’t the most thrilling of games and was decided by the only moment of real skill which Harry Kane’s goal. What it did show however was a resilient and competent Pompey who were neither overawed nor completely outplayed by at Tottenham side that contained a high proportion of regular first team and even world class players.

It was my first visit to the new stadium, and I have to say that I was very impressed indeed. Light years away from Fratton Park in terms of splendor and facilities but it was left to the Pompey fans to bring the atmosphere.

There are enough games left to turn things around and I am still hopeful that this will happen.

PUP