Dreadful Pompey Downed By Dons

Last updated : 17 November 2013 By Jim Bonner

Guy Whittingham has serious questions to ask of himself and his players after they produced a gutless performance devoid of any effort or quality at Kingsmeadow.

The match began with neither team taking control and it became a scrappy game which eventually came to life when Trevor Carson rushed out of his goal and took down Kaid Mohamed when attempting to claim the ball.

The Pompey goalkeeper then made a superb double save to deny Harry Pell from the spot and his follow-up to rectify his error and that could have been a turning point in the match for Whittingham's men.

It wasn't. The home side soon took the lead when Bondz N'Gala needlessly conceded a corner by slicing the ball from the near the halfway line. From that corner, Mohamed's shot was saved by Carson but the ball broke for Andy Frampton who had the easy task of putting the loose ball in the back of the net.

The Dons had a goal disallowed at the end of the half for a foul on Carson but Pompey had failed to register a single meaningful shot on goal during the entire first half.

The second period began in the same scrappy fashion as the first but Pompey did improve slightly as Andy Barcham hit the post after a good run having curled a shot narrowly over the bar earlier in the half.

But that was as good as it got for the 802 visiting fans as Wimbledon doubled their lead on 73 minutes when an unmarked Frampton headed in a corner.

Whittingham's team crumbled after that goal and although Sammy Moore's volley was superb, there was nobody in a maroon & pink shirt anywhere near him to close him down and so he had all the time he needed to pick his spot without anyone putting any pressure on him.

The Wombles added a fourth in stoppage time when Michael Smith collected a long ball and outmuscled Joe Devera before slamming the ball past Carson to complete the rout having barely gotten out of second gear for most of the match.

The final whistle was greeted by loud boos from the Pompey fans, probably the loudest noise they had made all afternoon with songs like "we want our money back" amongst many other explosive tirades being launched at the underperfoming Pompey players.

At least Simon Ferry had the decency to come over and applaud the fans before getting a verbal tirade. A couple of other players half-heartedly clapped but thought better of coming over to the livid fans who were disgusted with such a terrible performance, one that Ferry himself described as "disgraceful and embarrassing" and "absolute dog shit". You couldn't disagree with him.

This performance was hard to summarise it was so abysmal. The whole team played like a bunch of individuals who had never played together before in their lives. They could barely string a few passes together and had no cohesion or fluency to their game whatsoever.

The absolute worst thing about this performance, however, was the lack of commitment. Nobody was willing to win the 50/50 challenges, nobody could be bothered to track back or stay on the man they were supposed to mark and nobody had the leadership to take the game to Wimbledon and inspire those around him.

Quite simply, this was unacceptable and nowhere near good enough. It wasn't just a one-off either as the Newport performance was very similar. It may well be the worst showing of the season as it was worse than Newport and gives the York debacle a run for its money.

Perhaps it now really is time for Guy Whittingham to resign as something clearly isn't right at Pompey and the players representing our football club need reminding just what is expected of them in no uncertain terms, something that "nice Guy" and his staff may not be capable of.

Not only that, but a defensive coach should be hired quickly because the back four are far too disorganised to keep clean sheets and they're not helped by midfielders who don't want to track back (or in Ertl's case, simply too slow to keep pace) or strikers who don't look like scoring when they're not getting injured.

Something has to change otherwise there'll be more afternoons like this one to endure and that simply isn't what supporting a football club should be about, whether you're happy to have one to support or not.

Pompey Player Ratings

Trevor Carson: 5 - Excellent penalty save after conceding it but lacks communication with his defence.

Danny East: 3 - Out of his depth, it would seem.

Sonny Bradley: 3 - Worst performance yet.

Bondz N'Gala: 3 - Gone from hero to zero in last couple of games.

Joe Devera: 3 - Far too weak.

Jed Wallace: 5 - Gave more effort than most, but no quality.

Johnny Ertl: 3 - Another poor performance.

Simon Ferry: 4 - Lost the ball too often.

Andy Barcham: 6 - Only threat in the entire game.

Patrick Agyemang: 4 - Ineffective and off early due to injury.

David Connolly: 4 - Barely saw the ball and did nothing with it when he did.

Substitutes

Phil Smith

Yassin Moutaouakil

Marcos Painter

Shaun Cooper

Therry Racon (Ertl 56) 4 - Didn't fit in.

Ryan Bird (Agyemang 29): 3 - Did nothing apart from get concussed when defending.

Tom Craddock (Bird 70): N/A - Hardly touched the ball.