Both sides will be aiming to bounce back from weekend home defeats when Pompey visit Crewe this evening (6pm kick-off). But while the Blues were left cursing a 2-1 reverse by Burton, their opponent suffered a much heavier loss. A run of five goals conceded in the space of 14 minutes either side of the break helped Oxford inflict a 6-0 rout at Gresty Road. It left the Railwaymen sitting 15th in the League One standings – 16 points clear of the drop zone and nine adrift of the play-off places. They are higher than the other three sides to have achieved promotion last term, with Plymouth one spot behind, having played two games more. Northampton and Swindon, meanwhile, are both battling to avoid a swift return back to the basement. The Alex missed out on the title to the latter side on the points-per-game method, despite sitting above them on goal difference when Covid-19 saw the action grind to a halt. Pompey drew 0-0 on their last visit to Gresty Road in 2016, while Ronan Curtis’ brace and goals from Tom Naylor and John Marquis saw them triumph 4-1 at Fratton Park earlier in the current campaign. TEAM NEWS John Marquis has completed a three-match suspension, but is still a doubt with a recurring ankle problem. Lee Brown (hamstring) has joined Alex Bass (foot), Ellis Harrison (knee), Jordy Hiwula (ankle) and Michael Jacobs (knee) on the sidelines. The home side will still be without midfielder Oli Finney, who broke his leg against Shrewsbury in February. HEAD TO HEAD Overall Pompey: 7 wins Crewe: 7 wins 5 draws At Gresty Road Pompey: 2 wins Crewe: 3 wins 4 draws OFFICIALS Referee: Darren Drysdale Assistants: Abbas Khan and Kevin Morris Fourth Official: Andrew Hendley BETTING Pompey are the 27/20 favourites with VBET to secure all three points, while the hosts can be backed at 85/40.
CREWE ALEXANDRA 1 Will Jaaskelainen GK 21 Rio Adebisi DF 3 Harry Pickering (C) DF 33 Nathan Wood DF 17 Luke Offord DF 8 Tommy Lowery MF 32 Antony Evans MF 28 Luke Murphy MF 9 Chris Porter FW 19 Owen Dale FW 10 Charlie Kirk FW Substitutes 13 Dave Richards SUB 29 Omar Beckles SUB 5 Donervon Daniels SUB 16 Oliver Lancashire SUB 11 Callum Ainley SUB 31 Stephen Walker SUB 12 Mikael Mandron SUB
Pompey finding it hard to break Crewe down. This often happens when a team loses its previous match heavily, particularly as it seems like a freak result.
Half time. 0-0 score. Bit of a scrappy game so far. We have possibly had the better chances going closest to scoring. Lowery of Crewe was booked early on for deliberately preventing Pompey from taking a free kick. In the 28th minute Sean Raggett was booked for a foul. In the 31st minute Crewe made a substitution with Adebesi going off injured, replaced by Donervan Daniels. in the 48th minute, Crewe had Offord booked for a foul on Marcus Harness. Really hope the second half is better !!
Half Time Match Stats:- Home Team: Crewe ..........Away Team: Portsmouth Possession: Home 37% Away 63% Shots: Home 4 Away 6 Shots on Target: Home 0 Away 2 Corners: Home 2 Away 3 Fouls: Home 8 Away 6
Final whistle and it's 0-0. We could/should have won the match if John Marquis had scored from the spot in the 59th minute, but the keeper easily saved his poor penalty kick, which was awarded when the Crewe keeper brought down Ronan Curtis in the box. Ronan Curtis had a good shot on goal brilliantly saved by their keeper soon after. We brought on Harvey White for Ben Close, and George Byers for Ryan Williams. Second half bookings for both Ryan Williams and Callum Johnson. To my mind, that's two points dropped, which would have taken us up to 4th in the table.
Squeaky bum time. 75 points should do it as others around us will drop points. Three wins and a draw please.
Final Match Stats:- Home Team: Crewe .........Away Team: Portsmouth Possession: Home 39% Away 61% Shots: Home 9 Away 11 Shots on Target: Home 1 Away 5 Corners: Home 2 Away 6 Fouls: Home 17 Away 9
You lot haven’t won a play off game in your whole history have you? Probably only club in the land with a worse record than us. I can see us getting drawn together but we are totally gone now. Will limp over the finish line and whoever we come up against will beat us home and away.
As It Stands:- Team ..................P GD Pts 1 Hull .................41 39 79 2 Peterborough 40 32 76 3 Sunderland ....40 28 71 4 Lincoln City ....39 19 66 5 Blackpool .......39 17 65 6 Portsmouth ....40 15 65 7 Oxford Utd ......41 14 62 8 Charlton ..........39 .6 62 9 Ipswich ............40 .0 60
It's not just a Portsmouth thing, but a Hampshire thing. The entire county has a horrendous play-off record. In approximately 18 years or so, the only Hampshire team I'm aware of to get promoted via the play-offs is Farnborough. However, the teams to make the play-offs and not get promoted include us (three times), Farnborough twice (before they got promoted at the third attempt), Aldershot (four times), Fleet, Havant & Waterlooville (twice as well?), Basingstoke, Eastleigh (twice) and Southampton. As a county, we don't do play offs, and it's flipping annoying.