Competing in the Championship was never going to be a walk in the park after 12 long and largely desperate years away.
Throughout those 12 years, 10 of them were agony. A decade’s worth of demise. We saw quite a lot in that time too, a lot of which we hope to never see again.
Our two best players sat on the bench in the second leg of a play-off semi-final, Morecambe’s goalkeeper scored a 93rd minute equaliser on a bleak Tuesday night, and we saw a nine-man Coventry side disappointed to leave Fratton Park with just a point.
At one point our only icon was Johnny Ertl, who for all his endeavor, seemed to spend large parts of the game chasing the results of his first touch.
Saturday’s 5-1 defeat at The Hawthorns was another painful memory to add to the list. Even though many expected it, it still doesn’t make it easier to digest, but ultimately, so be it.
As always this season, the players had the full support of the mainly understanding away end at full time, before the online posse inevitably called on several players to be released, like usual.
Three days is a long time in football. Yes, our away form is terrible, but it’s probably what you’d come to expect from a team that has next-to-no experience at championship level. Supporters should have known it wouldn’t be plain-sailing
Pompey are finding their feet with a makeshift defence and a budget that isn’t competitive. It was always going to be our home form that could, not should, keep us up.
Thankfully, we’ve got a manager who oozes class and control. He’s been without his central defensive pairing all season. One summer signing has already departed, while others that aren’t at the level or suffered catastrophic injuries barely before the ink on the contract had dried. So, I’d say we’re overachieving this season, and possibly overachieved in the last campaign. That’s probably all down to John Mousinho.
One of the biggest compliments I can give Mousinho is I rarely watch his pre-game or post-match interviews, because I know there won’t be a word out of place. Not like the good old days of watching Paul Cook implode into two different harmonies, while his takeaway tea spills all over his hands.
We’re in the Championship, with a manager we can get behind, so let’s trust the process. Fans should be used to that command by now.
We have two former academy prospects now veterans rallying the fight for survival in Matt Ritchie and Marlon Pack, who’s criticism in recent weeks has been tough to stomach. Surely a league winning captain that grew up with a PO postcode is everything we dreamt of.
All things considered, in the long and largely painful journey of being a football fan, we’re in a really good place. We just might not know it.
Fratton Park is a fortress again. We were calling it that when it really wasn’t, but now it is and we have to keep it that way. It’s the launch pad to breathe confidence into the players that are finding no joy on the road.
With the final few furlongs ahead of us, now’s the time to stay on side, to give this squad the support it needs and deserves.
It might have moved into the world of contactless payments, street food kiosks and lighting you’d associate with a garden centre at Christmas, but it’s still Fratton Park and it’ll be the reason we stay up. Let’s continue to make it count.
Photo: Martyn White Sports Images
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