«No place like home», skriver Michael Pantling i sitt siste innlegg.

MENINGER: Vår medlem nummer 39, 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 deler jevnlig sine tanker og meninger om Pompey med oss. Denne gangen ved drøyt halvspilt sesong.

LES OGSÅ: Godt å være tilbake

No Place Like Home

I managed to get to Fratton on Saturday to watch a highly competent Pompey performance against a very good Burnley side which was a contrast to the previous weekend when I went to West Brom. At West Brom Pompey were the better side for the first 25 minutes and appeared to be in full control of the match until West Brom scored, much against the run of play after which the home side managed to score virtually every time the home side attacked. I thought Schmidt was a bit unlucky with the first goal and was probably unsighted but the rest of the goals resulted from a bad day at the office for the entire Pompey defence. Until that point Pompey had scored more goals than West Brom this season.

Things could not have been more different against Burnley where the reinforced defence worked exceedingly well together and were very evenly matched in a game with only a limited number of scoring chances for either side. Whist I had hoped that Pompey would come away with a point at West Brom and was sorely disappointed, I expected Pompey to get something from Burnley and was satisfied with the result.

It was good to see some of the new recruits, Andre Dozzell was particularly lively and Atkinson was solid at the back. Matt Richie seemed to be on form providing a bit of bite to Pompey’s attack. The Fratton crowd made a huge difference, noisy from the start and supportive throughout the match, in stark contrast to the atmosphere at the Hawthorns where the strong Pompey away support made most of the noise until the home fans woke up after the first couple of goals.

Nice to see the Pompey fans acknowledging Jed Wallace, a former Fratton favourite.

This continues to be a challenging and often frustrating season for Pompey and their fans in what is an extremely challenging division. It makes such a difference to put 2 or 3 wins together in quick succession – just look at Plymouth who have closed the gap considerably. I understand the strategy of putting our best effort into home fixtures but Pompey still need to get something from away matches and not just for the never faltering travelling fans.

Last season Birmingham went down on 50 points, possibly due to Rotherham getting so few, but this still means Pompey need a further 18 or so points to stay up and while they might not win many away matches, they have got to try and stop the big margins since goal difference could be all important.

I cannot see Pompey getting anything at Sheffield U whereas we should do better against Cardiff at home next week. Oxford away could also give something.

I have got a ticket for QPR at Fratton which I am looking forward to and then hope to get tickets for the visit of Leeds and Plymouth. Leeds will be really tough and Plymouth have had a bit of a resurgence under a new manager so that might be entertaining but is a “must win” match.

Pompey’s recent home performances have given me more confidence that we can stay up and some of the recent transfers confirm that the club have aspirations to both maintain this lever and to build on an improving performances in both the short and medium terms.

The manager has proven himself to be astute and, in my opinion, continues to do a very good job for the club.

Play up Pompey

Michael Pantling (t.h.)