We came into this high noon standoff on the south coast under a little bit of pressure after both Burnley and Sheffield United had won yesterday, but we knew that this would be a difficult place to get a win to maintain our gap at the top. Portsmouth are pulling clear of trouble after a difficult start to the season, and their recoent home form has played a large part in this revival.
So Daniel Farke opted to give his back four a bit of protection, by selecting Gruev at the expense of Rothwell. The first half was lively, and although Leeds had more of the possession, the makeshift Portsmouth defence coped well for the most part, especially their captain Marlon Pack. He’s a midfielder by trade, but was usually on hand to deny Piroe much time and space.
He half produced two main talking points, the first coming when Ritchie seemed to kick the back of James’ heel after the Welshman beat him to a high ball. Had VAR been in use in the championship we would undoubtedly have got the penalty, but the referee failed to spot who had got the ball first, and might have thought James had gone down a bit too theatrically.
Then Solomon’s trickery made space for a shot in a crowded penalty area, and when Schmid made the save Piroe reacted faster than the Portsmouth defence to get to the loose ball. But just as I expected the net to bulge, it didn’t. Piroe had more time than he realised, but he snatched at the shot, putting it too close to Schmid, giving the keeper the chance to make a second block with his legs.
And our leading goalscorer had another excellent opportunity soon after the break. A long ball down the right from Bogle set James racing down the wing, and he in turn found Solomon in space with a cross-field ball. Schmid came out early and forced Solomon wide, but our winger took the ball past him on the touchline and pulled it back for Piroe.
There was no one we’d rather the chance fell to, but somehow our leading scorer put the ball over the bar with the goal yawning in front of him. I read a comment during the week that Piroe gets most of his goals when he takes a touch first, and today provided plenty of evidence to back up that theory.
Had Piroe taken just one of these chances we would probably have gone on to win the game, but from that point on the momentum seemed to shift. The home side began to put us under pressure, with a couple of dangerous balls into the box they were unable to convert. And it all told when they took the lead on 61 minutes.
A long ball down the Pompey left found Bishop racing between our two central defenders, and as Meslier began to rush out to meet him he seemed to change his mind and hesitate before going to ground. Which gave Bishop the chance to chip the ball over him, and agonisingly for us it bounced in off the far post.
By now the whole atmosphere in this compact ground had changed, with the home fans getting right behind their team. And we could have gone further behind when Dozell got plenty of power into a shot from 25 yards, but thankfully sent it close to Mesiler, and our keeper was able to deal with it. All of which prompted Farke to make a few changes to try to get us back into the game.
Tanaka hadn’t been at his best, losing the ball more than once through poor touches, and Aaronson had struggled to make any impact at all. Solomon was also replaced, with Joseph, Ramazani and Rothwell coming on. And it nearly paid dividends, with one of the subs involved as we came close to an equaliser after a wonderful move downfield.
Firpo advanced down the left and attempted a one-two with Ramazani, getting the ball back after an overhit pass as a clearance cannoned into him. Piroe then played Firpo in as the full-back continued his run, only for Schmid to make another fine save with his legs. Then Firpo nearly added to his recent collection of headed goals but this time it came back off the bar, and James sent the rebound just wide as he tried to guide the ball into the corner of the net.
With the final ten minutes approaching, it was time for Farke to throw more men forwards, so Gnonto came on for Gruev, while Byram replaced Bogle in a like-for-like substitution. But as the home side got men behind the ball we struggled to break them down, and at the other end a long distance shot from Murphy clipped the outside of the post.
Five minutes of injury time were announced, and as we went into the last of them Meslier went up for a corner, but it was Byram who rose to meet it. He got plenty of power into the header, but that man Schmid was on hand to make yet another fine save. There was time for one more corner, but Pompey dealt with it and it was followed almost immediately by the final whistle.
As well as Portsmouth played throughout, this wasn’t a game that we should have lost, but we did thanks to our missed chances and an inspired performance from their keeper. Should we start to feel nervous after the way our season ran out of steam last year? It’s too early to tell if the last two games have been a blip or the start of another fatal bad run, but we certainly now need a pick-up with a win over Millwall on Wednesday night.
