Portsmouth: Shocking!

Last updated : 15 September 2010 By Jim Bonner

Neville Dalton is a journalist and a Portsmouth fan of more than 40 years.

Well, our start to the season has been a bit of a shocker, then.

I don't mean the performances - or even the results (though no wins in six league games is shocking in the critical sense of the word, if not the literal one).

I mean the reaction of some Pompey fans.

Cotterill out; Sonko's rubbish; incompetent defending; no cutting edge. They're all common themes on this message board as our first month of Championship football starts to dent some of our expectations.

But what did you expect?

I remember reading with amusement during the close season some of the wags in blue speculating on how we'd pop back to the Premier League the better for our chastening economic and footballing experiences.

We had enough experience and too much ability for most of those little Championship sides.

OK, these were very much in the minority, but until the final weeks before the start of the new season it struck me that most posters were pretty confident about how we would adapt to our new surroundings and quite dismissive of those who predicted further doom before any resurrection.

Well, our second-tier baptism should have wiped away such smugness.

We were never going to do anything other than struggle this season for all the reasons I - and several others - have recounted before.

We had appalling pre-season preparation; were forced to get rid of most of what remained of our decent players; had no money to buy anyone to replace them, and in any case were constrained by a transfer embargo which was lifted only because we actually had too few professionals to be considered competitive in this league.

So what could we reasonably have expected from those first six fixtures?

Yes, it's been bad. But that's because all the Fratton Park ingredients add up to a bad season.

Even though we've managed to rake in a few more bodies, there aren't really enough quality players to carry us through what promises to be a challenging and traumatic season.

I know some people believe my pre-season assessment of Pompey's prospects was too negative.

Maybe now they can see why.

I'd love nothing more than to be proved wrong - as I had wished last season, too.

But even with those deadline-busting (or not) deals, Pompey are going to have a tough task giving us too much cheer this season.

I've accepted that, and while I'm disappointed at the results (and most of the performances) so far, I'm not surprised.

Instead, I look forward to those little events that exceed my expectations - like the final hour against Palace in the Carling Cup; our actually winning a penalty shootout with a few confidently taken spot-kicks; like the sporadic brightness of the youngsters amid such a torrid start, and - wait for it - the quality of some of our approach work in the 4-1 demolition at Palace in the league game.

That's right: Crystal Palace 4 Pompey 1, and there's Mr Pessimism finding some chinks of light in a performance most of you (apparently watching on the radio!) were horrified by.

More of that later, but what of those criticisms I highlighted at the beginning of the article?

Steve Cotterill should go: As the seasons pass, I try harder and harder not to make instant assessments of players and managers, difficult as it sometimes is (see Sonko, below).

But I honestly cannot see how anyone can make enough of a judgment of the manager so far to be able to pronounce that he should be sacked.

Sure, he hasn't delivered a top-class side; nor have Pompey been playing sparkling football.

But I could have told you that before the season started. In fact, I did, as did many others.

I cannot say how good or bad Cotterill is at this stage of the season, for to me it is only now that his decisions can be scrutinised fairly.

He walked into a mess (yes, he knew it was a mess, though, like Hart and Grant, appeared ignorant of its extent); he inherited a pre-season tour that appears to have set the players back a few weeks.

He's had to bargain at the bottom of the cupboard for players, all the while his hands tied by the exodus of quality and quantity from the squad.

And he's had to devise a system around what he's been left with.

OK, maybe he would have picked Ibrahima Sonko every week in any case. Maybe he thought David Nugent would thrive as a lone striker, even if he had had alternatives.

Maybe he would have packed the midfield with defensive-minded players, no matter who was at his disposal.

But we don't know that.

Yes, he has certainly made some questionable decisions.

He doesn't appear to be a great champion of our youngest players and has maybe been a little too public in that view.

He chose to bring in aforementioned Sonko and his limited Stoke colleague, Carl Dickinson.

He bizarrely laid into other Pompey players to defend Sonko's poor distribution in the early games, and more recently, he has started Kanu when the abiding view for the past two or three seasons has been that the 62-year-old is more effective as an "impact sub".

But given the hand he was dealt, he's not had a lot of leeway so far.

Let's remember, too, that Cotterill has secured us two decent Premier League players with immense experience of the Championship level in return for a talented and promising - but inconsistent - youngster, who has also proved an occasional liability, even in this lower league.

And he also persuaded Ricardo Rocha to return as a permanent (I assume, Mr Lampitt) signing a player I trust will stand out as an island of quality in a sea of mediocrity.

I'm not saying Cotterill will prove to be the right man for Pompey, but in the circumstances we were in at the time, he was the only man. And only time will prove whether that makes us lucky to have him.

His new signings are probably not yet match-fit and perhaps need a week or two to gel with the rest.

Only then will we start to see whether Cotterill is steering us in the right direction.

But don't expect any miracles unless we can secure some amazing loan signings.

Our squad is still threadbare, and a couple of injuries or suspensions will leave us in much the same state as we kicked off the season.

And so to the other points.

Sonko and the defence: Yes, both have been poor. Maybe Stevie boy can't organise them; maybe he has forgotten to tell them to communicate with each other - and especially the goalkeeper.

Or maybe they're just not up to it. Or at least, not yet.

Sonko has played in the Premier League. His performances were of a sufficient standard to persuade managers to sign him.

I remain to be convinced. In fact, I've been hugely disappointed by his performances so far.

But I'm used to top-quality defenders, playing in front of an international-class goalkeeper.

Circumstances have dictated that with the possible exception of Rocha, we have neither now. And we had better get used to it.

No goalscoring knowhow: A fair criticism of a side with just two league goals in six matches.

But we've been playing most of those with a lone striker who is not a lone striker, supported to varying degrees by hitherto untried kids and an overpaid international who most fans don't want to be here.

Some criticism of Nugent has been justified. I thought his performance against Cardiff was one of the most abysmal I've seen.

His composure in front of goal has been largely non-existent, save for his excellently taken solo goal against Palace in the Cup and, I believe, a couple of "offsiders" that didn't count.

But when Dave Kitson and Kanu were alongside him against Ipswich and then Palace (until Nugent's injury), I saw a very different Nugent - determined, buoyant and making things happen.

He still needs to convert a few more chances, but he's done enough to offer me some encouragement for this long, hard season.

Kitson, too, has spurned some good opportunities already. But his approach and attitude have reassured me he is not here just for the ride (and surely it can't be for the money!).

I hope his gift of a goal at Selhurst Park will be the first of many for Pompey.

If anything, Kanu is the one least looking like a goalscorer. In fact, on Tuesday, he appeared to do a good job of clearing a goalbound effort from Kitson.

Playing him from the off is a calculated risk, but although I thought he was the reason we defended so badly from midfield on Tuesday night, I thought he was also the reason we attacked so impressively at times.

In a way, one man summed up our performance in south London.

The other common criticism that I find hardest to assess is that some players are not making the effort.

Call me naïve, but I find that difficult to believe. Sure, there have been plenty off the pace, but is that a deliberate tactic by individuals who don't care about the club?

Incompetence, yes. Lack of form and/or fitness, almost certainly. But lack of effort? I'm not so sure.

Had we the luxury of a big squad, we might be able to punish those considered to have the wrong attitude.

At the moment, all we can do is encourage and cajole; hope and implore.

But whatever we do - don't expect miracles, like mid-table mediocrity.