It is a feat that Pompey have not managed to achieve so far this season. But Danny Cowley will hope to lead the Blues to a fourth successive League One victory when they visit Wigan on Easter Monday. The new head coach has enjoyed a 100 per cent start to his Fratton career, with wins over Ipswich, Shrewsbury and Rochdale. Now they face a Latics side full of cheer after recent off-field developments, but with plenty of work to do on the pitch to preserve their third tier status. Former Pompey manager Paul Cook left at the end of last season after a 12-point deduction for entering administration saw them relegated from the Championship. Another familiar face to those on Portsea Island took his place, with assistant Leam Richardson stepping up to take the top job. His hands have undoubtedly been tied by the club’s financial issues and they currently find themselves 22nd in the table – two points adrift of safety. But Wigan fans recently received the good news that a takeover by a consortium led by Bahraini businessman Abdulrahman Al-Jasmi had gone through. It was the men from Greater Manchester who claimed the points when the sides met at Fratton Park earlier in the season, as Ellis Harrison’s late strike proved no more than a consolation. The most recent DW Stadium clash finished all square in August 2017, with Conor Chaplin cancelling out Ivan Toney’s opener in a contest that saw both teams finish with 10 men. TEAM NEWS John Marquis serves the second match of his three-game ban, while Alex Bass (foot), Ellis Harrison (knee) and Jordy Hiwula (ankle) remain sidelined. Gavin Massey is expected to miss out for the hosts after injuring his hamstring in last month’s draw at AFC Wimbledon. HEAD TO HEAD Overall Pompey: 10 wins Wigan: 6 wins 4 draws At Wigan Pompey: 4 wins Wigan: 3 wins 2 draws OFFICIALS Referee: Tom Nield Assistants: Alistair Nelson and Bradley Hall Fourth Official: Thomas Harty BETTING Pompey are the 4/5 favourites with VBET to secure all three points, while the hosts can be backed at 7/2.
Half time, and it's 0-0. Bit of a drab first half, not helped by a lifeless pitch probably not helped by the fact that the pitch is shared with the local rugby league side. Wigan had two players yellow carded for fouls on Pompey players - Ojo and Robinson. Our passing game has yet to get underway. Hope the second half will be better !
Half Time Match Stats:- Home Team: Wigan .........Away Team: Portsmouth Possession: Home 56% Away 44% Shots: Home 6 Away 1 Shots on Target: Home 0 Away 1 Corners: Home 2 Away 2 Fouls: Home 7 Away 7
Final whistle goes after eight minutes of time added on. 0-1 win for Pompey. We defended well at the end under immense pressure, to win the three points, and keep a clean sheet. Pompey brought on Andy Cannon for Michael Jacobs at half time, and within 40 seconds of the restart, sub Andy Cannon put us ahead with a lovely volleyed goal ! Pompey brought on Harvey White for Ben Close in the 61st minute. A clash of heads saw both Sean Raggett go off with a cut head, and Wigan's Callum Lang with concussion, to be replaced by Rasmus Nicolaisen in the 82nd minute. In the 87th minute on came James Bolton for Marcus Harness. Curtis Tilt was yellow carded in the 94th minute for wrestling Ronan Curtis to the ground to stop him attacking the Wigan goal. In the 96th minute Lee Brown was booked for delaying taking a throw in. That's four wins from four matches for Pompey's new manager Danny Cowley, and we are now up to fourth in the table. Happy days !!
Final Match Stats:- Home Team: Wigan .......Away Team: Portsmouth Possession: Home 59% Away 41% Shots: Home 13 Away 5 Shots on Target: Home 0 Away 3 Corners: Home 4 Away 4 Fouls: Home 14 Away 15
Happy Days Indeed, Wooperts. Sounds like a hard earned win at the end of the day. Just hark back three weeks ago, and Pompey were sliding towards midtable anonymity. I feel the much maligned Catlin as well as the Eisners' deserve some crédit for taking on board the fans' concerns regarding performances post Christmas. Perhaps the same players who are beginning to find form and purpose again, should carry some of the blame for Jackett's demise.
What is interesting regarding team selection is that no loanees are in the starting 11, although 2 came on a substitutes.
A very good point. I think managers make promises of opportunities to loanees and incoming players. Jackett's 'over rotation' of Brown and Daniels was a case in point. Also the opportunities given to Whyte and Beyers at the expense of Close suggested some undertaking to provide them with opportunities. Since these promises are probably verbal with the current manager at the time a new incoming manager is not burdened by them.
Portsmouth’s Danny Cowley delivers injury update on Sean Raggett after Wigan Athletic win Portsmouth defender Sean Raggett was forced off in the final 10 minutes of the win over Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium and Pompey now face a wait over the severity of the injury. Portsmouth are facing a nervous wait over the cheek injury defender Sean Raggett suffered during the 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic. Pompey moved up to fourth in the League One table at the DW Stadium after Andy Cannon’s superb second half strike was enough for three points for Danny Cowley’s side. In the final 10 minutes of the match, centre-back Raggett was forced off with a suspected broken cheekbone following a clash of heads with Wigan Athletic’s Callum Lang. Cowley admits that the injury looks like a serious one and the Blues are now facing a nervy wait over the coming days around the severity of Raggett’s injury.
I have now watched the replay. As ever - a win is a win is a win!! I have to say though if I saw this game in isolation from the previous three I would discern no difference between a Jackett coached side and a Crawley coached side. As i recall saying some time ago when Close was a regular in the side he is the canary in the coalmine - when he has a bad game Pompey do. He struggles when Pompey are not retaining possession. When possession is hard to come by Cannon is a better scrapper for the50-50 balls. However, as i said last week there is room for them both in the side. That would be at the expense of Jacobs who makes some excellent forward passes but overall does not contribute enough.
Didn't get to see this game but pleased we won (obviously). From what I've read the lads looked a bit tired. Hopefully the Cowley's can get them super fit. Got quite a few days off now so hopefully they can recharge and be ready to go again. The manager can't turn water into wine but he can make them better players and improve our tactics and mentality which they've started to do. How they and the team react to a loss will be interesting.
Danny Cowley has stated that we looked a "tired side" against Wigan. Possibly a combination of tiredness/state of the pitch/the way they played. We didn't get our game going until the start of the second half with Andy Cannon scoring immediately after the break. We then appeared to improve our passing game, although Wigan played well, but we in turn defended well, even after Sean Raggett went off injured. As a team we now appear to be playing with a new belief, managed by the Cowley brothers who are very animated (unlike Kenny J !) and gee the players up constantly, which to my mind is exactly what they need. Same players as before but with a totally different outlook. Long may it continue !!
During a coming together between players from both sides, Lee Brown lightly threw the ball at the head of Wigan’s Tendayi Darikwa, before turning around and pretending that the ball came from behind him. Ben Close found it particularly amusing in person, with a tweet of the clip gaining several thousand likes on social media !!
