A Turning Point?

Last updated : 01 February 2015 By Jim Bonner

Pompey held Wycombe to a goalless draw yesterday at Adams Park in what might be a turning point for Andy Awford's managerial career.

Unfortunately the match highlights didn't illustrate Pompey's dominance in the first half where Pompey, playing a wing-back system with six changes to the side, missed a whole host of chances with Matt Tubbs guilty of missing three chances the leading scorer in the division should be taking.

Josh Passley and Dan Butler were causing problems down the wings with their marauding runs with the latter whipping in some excellent crosses into dangerous areas. Pompey also had a penalty appeal turned down in a half they were in complete control of.

If there was a sign that Pompey's luck is beginning to turn it would be that Joe Jacobson's strike at the end of the half struck the crossbar rather than found the top corner. A goalmouth scramble in the second half also saw the ball cleared to safety whereas on another day the ball would ricocheted off a Pompey player and into his own net.

Despite not showing the same sort of dominance in the second half than the first, nobody could say that a draw wasn't warranted on the day and there are plenty of positives to draw from such a performance.

This doesn't mean that this match will be a turning point in the season, however. It wasn't long ago that Pompey ended a long run of defeats on the road with a point at Cheltenham only to then lose to Wimbledon on Boxing Day.

A draw at Luton who had won many games in a row on their own turf was also thought to be a significant result that Pompey could kick on from, only to take one point from the next three matches.

The hard truth is that although there are positives to take from this match, the result is only a draw and Awford's team are still only two points adrift of the relegation zone. It speaks volumes when Tranmere, a team that were significantly below Pompey in the table with a huge points gap between the two teams, are now above Pompey with the two teams having played the same amount of matches.

Next Saturday's match against Hartlepool will be the crucial one in determining Andy Awford's future at our club and that won't be an easy one as they have started to pick up points under Ronnie Moore.

The games after that will be just as important as Pompey face more relegation "six-pointers" but the result yesterday will hopefully prove to be more than a false dawn this time round.