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Pompey Match Postponed - Fratton Faithful

 

Pompey Match Postponed

Last updated : 22 October 2013 By Jim Bonner

Portsmouth will have to play Wycombe again after extremely heavy rain forced the game to be abandoned at half-time with the pitch waterlogged.

Trevor Carson replaced Phil Smith in goal but otherwise Guy stuck with the same team that beat Bury on Saturday and was rewarded with a similar kind of performance during the first half.

Pompey were sloppy in possession and only had a disallowed goal to cheer early on. Patrick Agyemang had clearly fouled Kortney Hause before striking the ball into the bottom corner in a rare attack for the hosts.

As the rain began to hammer down Wycombe fired a couple of warning shots at goal before taking the lead midway through the half. Carson punched the ball out but Billy Knott received it on the edge of the box and blasted it into the top corner.

The home side could barely get going although Therry Racon forced a save Matt Ingram. However, with the storm causing the pitch to get waterlogged the passing was atrocious and the game descended into a farce.

If Pompey were going to get back into the game it was going to be from a set-piece and that turned out to be the case as Sonny Bradley headed Ricky Holmes' free kick across goal and Agyemang managed to stab the ball home from close range.

Referee Lee Collins must have been relieved to see that equaliser go in as it made the decision easy for him to abandon the match during the break with the pitch and parts of the stadium getting flooded. Had Wycombe still held the lead at half-time the match still probably would have stopped but after the Leicester debacle in 2002 you could never be sure.

The club has advised all Pompey fans who bought tickets for the match to keep their stubs as they will be valid for the rearranged fixture, whenever that may be. The Wycombe players showed a touch of class by applauding the fans in each stand in the ground straight after the whistle, it's just a shame that the Portsmouth players didn't do the same.

The main gripe to come out of this game was that Sonny Bradley was booked during the match and even though it was abandoned, that yellow card will still stand and he will now miss Saturday's trip to Torquay.

In summary, Pompey never got going and had this match continued then the case could be made that they would have gone on to lose. On the other hand, that equaliser may have galvanised the team to improve in the second half had the rain stopped.

It's all irrelevant, though, as the storm clearly influenced the game and Pompey fans once again had to endure a soaking after a match against the Chairboys after the JPT defeat last season.