Michael Pantling frykter at det blir en lang sesong med kamp for å unngå nedrykk.

MENINGER: Vår medlem nummer 38, 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 tre måneder ut i sesongen.

LES OGSÅ: – Vi burde bruker penger på en spiss til

Keep the Faith

After a reasonable start to the season things seem to have dipped considerably. I was impressed with our performance against Southampton but sorry to see the injuries to Schmidt and Ogilvie. We clearly missed Schmidt and that it was good that he was back against Millwall – a much needed win.

I was hoping that they could manage a similar performance against Sheffield United but it was not to be. I think we were all a bit naive about the Championship last season and thought that Pompey would do well following their promotion. We have now learned that there are few if any “easy”matches at this level and consistency is the key to success.

Frykter nedrykkskamp også denne sesongen

I was fairly optimistic at the start of the season over the possibility of challenging for a play off place but I now fear that we are once again in a long battle for survival.

We have been a bit unlucky with injuries but that shouldn’t be an excuse – it can and does happen to all teams.

While we are generally fairly solid at the back and had even been improving slightly, our biggest challenge is scoring goals.

I don’t think Colby Bishop has found his form this season and that is a big problem for us. I am also not convinced that Connor Chaplin has been the success we had all hoped for – I was surprise to see Ipswich let him go out on loan given his good performances for them but we can perhaps now see why.

I have only managed to get to Fratton once so far this season to see our win against Middlesborough, but will go to see Pompey play Charlton next weekend.

I have still got every confidence in the manager and if he can get our consistency and all important home form to improve, we should at least stay up. I think we need at least one new experienced striker when the transfer window re-opens.

Bristol City on Saturday is going to be tough but who knows – we are at home and we are Pompey.

Play up and God Jul to everybody!

Connor Chaplin.