City gained another valuable point at home against Portsmouth, extending their home unbeaten record.
Mark Kennedy made two forced changes to the side, with TJ Eyoma coming into the side for Lewis Montsma, who got handed a three-game suspension after he was found guilty by the FA of violent conduct for an elbow to a Bristol Rovers player, which was reported by Joey Barton due to the match official not seeing the incident. Luke Plange was handed his first start in red and white, with Ben House also suspended for his red card against Derby on Tuesday night, where the Imps drew 1-1 after spending over forty minutes with ten men.
No one turns up on a Saturday and wants to see a 0-0, but this wasn’t the same sort of game as Cambridge or MK Dons was earlier in the month. Both sides lacked a cutting edge to their game, but there were chances and the game was well contested between two sides of similar ability on the day. I think the Portsmouth squad on paper is better than ours, and that is no disrespect to our team at all. They have good strength in depth, and players like Colby Bishop, Joe Morrell and Ryan Tunnicliffe all starting, who we would take if we were offered them tomorrow and even useful players on the bench like Joe Piggot and Ronan Curtis. On the other hand, we couldn’t name a full bench yesterday and we had to bring on all four of our outfield substitutes to try and impact the game and cover for injuries.
Jack Diamond was the man impressing early on and had a great early chance on when he was played through on goal by Sean Roughan. Jack did everything right up until the finish, which he put wide of the post with ex-Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Macey rooted to the spot. We had all the momentum and while we weren’t getting loads of shots on target we looked like we were going to go on and get ourselves a goal and go and win the game.
What I’m trying to say in short is, we had control and there was a crucial turning point that saw us lose that for the majority of the game. That moment for me was losing Adam Jackson and having to change from a 3-4-3 (5-2-3) to a 4-2-3-1, Danny Mandroiu did get his first run out in a while thanks to the injury but I thought the change in system turned the momentum ever so slightly into the hands of Pompey. Adam is massive for us, and his physical presence was crucial to the game plan and trying to keep the Pompey attackers quiet, who despite not being the biggest are useful in the air. Some may have expected Sean to move into the left side of the back three and for us to bring on Harry Boyes, but despite Sean being able to play there it might have been too much of a pressure situation (in the middle of a league game) for him to pushed into that position. The one positive from the change in system was Danny coming on and trying to play Morrell out of the game, which I think he did pretty well.
Despite the momentum changing slightly, I still think we looked on the front foot once we settled down into the new system. Once Mandroiu got into things, he looked sharp and once again I was impressed with the direct play from Mide Shodipo on the right-hand side. He did take a game or two to get up to speed, but he looks like a real threat. With all due respect, everything that Garrick wasn’t for us. If he can get himself on the scoresheet a bit more and grow some confidence in front of goal, he could fire us into the top half of the league. We got into half-time level and I think 0-0 was fair, although if any team was going to be leading it would have been us.
Pompey improved in the second half and they started playing a bit more like a team that had a budget as they do. I don’t mean to patronize Pompey but I’m jealous of what they have. They had the ability to change the game on Saturday and bring on players that are quality. Take Dane Scarlett for example, on loan from Spurs, very highly rated and was expected to get a Championship loan move in the summer. Joe Piggott I’ve already mentioned is a top striker at this level and Ronan Curtis, as much as he is a younger Chris Maguire attitude-wise, is a very good footballer and one that has had Championship interest for multiple transfer windows.
We lacked the ability to change the game for me, bar Mandroiu, who had to come on early. Charles Vernam did very well in his small cameo and was probably our best player in that period but if rumours are true, we were looking to offload him in January and now he is a go-to option for us. Lasse Sorensen isn’t a midfielder that inspires victory, more one that adds some control and energy but he is never going to go and create a goal out of nothing and as much as I like Harry Boyes, he is a defender.
We had one really good chance in the second half though through Mandroiu, which possibly would have been goal of the season if it had hit the back of the net but unfortunately for us, it bounced off the bar. I thought our best period of the half came when Charles was on, he played direct and got us two shots on target that made the keeper work. The real big chance at the end came through Diamond and it has been well covered on social media. Does he pass? Does he shoot? Being in that situation isn’t easy and the criticism he’s getting is a bit unfair. I think he’s been a much better player recently, for example, his performance against Derby was mighty for reasons other than his goalscoring.