Late Heartbreak For Pompey

Last updated : 05 December 2013 By Jim Bonner

Portsmouth were denied their first win in seven games after Anthony Stewart's header from a corner in the dying seconds of the match ensured Wycombe shared the spoils.

The first half was littered with fouls as Pompey failed to find any tempo to their game after a bright start and allowed the visitors to play the better football.

The Chairboys soon took the lead with the simplest of goals. A long diagonal ball found the big man at the far post and he headed the ball across goal for Matt McClure who turned his man and struck the ball past Trevor Carson. 

Once again there was a perceived lack of effort from the home side and the fans inside Fratton Park were angry as Wycombe showed greater desire to win every 50/50 ball and take advantage of Pompey's sloppy defending.

One player to respond to the crowd and show some commitment was Danny East who went in for a challenge and ended up landing awkwardly on his neck and getting seriously injured. Sonny Bradley has tweeted that he spoke to East as he was being stretchered off so hopefully he isn't too seriously injured.

Wycombe almost rubbed salt into the wounds during the eight minutes of stoppage time as a cross somehow evaded everyone in the Pompey backline and forced Carson into a good save. Jed Wallace could also consider himself lucky to not be sent off after a wild lunge.

Wallace was taken off at half time for David Connolly as Andy Awford changed the system to 4-4-2 and that saw an improvement in the performance with Pompey piling on the pressure.

That pressure told when Connolly was brought down by Sam Wood in the box, even if the decision was a slightly soft one. However, the Irishman's spot kick was poor as goalkeeper Matt Ingram guessed the right way and saved it, with Ryan Bird's follow up superbly blocked by Marvin McCoy.

Thankfully, heads didn't drop and the pressure finally told as Ricky Holmes got down the wing and teed up Andy Barcham who was composed enough to fire the ball past Ingram for the equaliser.

The crowd could sense a winner as the game had well and truly swung in Pompey's favour and it looked like the winless run was going to end when substitute Patrick Agyemang headed in Holmes' free kick with just six minutes and stoppage time to play.

However, the demons of Guy Whittingham's reign as Pompey manager reared their ugly heads at the death. Bondz N'Gala needlessly sliced the ball out for a corner which was headed out for another corner, only for that one to be scored as an unmarked Stewart headed the ball into the top corner to frustrate the Pompey fans.

The amount of goals that have been conceded either in stoppage time or from corners this season has been criminal. The new manager has got a lot of work to do to change the mentality of the players who need to keep going until the final whistle and keep their composure rather than panic.

At least it wasn't a defeat and in truth Wycombe were worthy of their point in the end despite the nature of how the result came about. That was due to yet another terrible first half performance which lacked quality and more importantly, effort. Let's hope the new manager is someone who will work the players hard and demand nothing less than 100% workrate for the entire game.

It would be no surprise to see that Pompey fans have become very frustrated with how this season has panned out so far and so it'll be nice to have a break whilst the new manager comes in and gets settled before the home fixture with Newport.

But who will that man be? Not Andy Awford judging by the performances and results under his short tenure. My money would be on Richie Barker taking the top job working under Steve Coppell as a director of football.

And they would have a mighty task to try and turn the fortunes of this football club around.

Pompey Player Ratings

Trevor Carson: 6 - Let down by his defence.

Danny East: N/A - May well be out for the season after what looked like a horrific injury. Hopefully he'll be OK.

Sonny Bradley: 5 - Poor interception to almost gift Wycombe a second goal summed up his night. Not at his best.

Joe Devera: 4 - Kept giving the ball away. Again.

Dan Potts: 6 - Seems to be better going forward as he wasn't so great defensively.

Jed Wallace: 4 - Another lacklustre display and lucky to stay on the pitch after needless lunge.

Johnny Ertl: 6 - A bit slow but wasn't too bad overall.

Shaun Cooper: 6 - Hasn't played too badly in centre midfield.

Andy Barcham: 7 - Worked hard and took his goal well.

Ricky Holmes: 6 - A couple of decent deliveries.

Ryan Bird: 6 - Won what he could in the air but had little support.

Substitutes

John Sullivan

Bondz N'Gala (East 36): 4 - Looked uncomfortable at times and made a late, costly error.

Marcos Painter

Romain Padovani

Simon Ferry

David Connolly (Wallace 46): 7 - Changed the game despite his missed penalty.

Patrick Agyemang (Ertl 78): 7 - Not on for long but showed us just what we were missing.