Pompey have completely turned their season around

Less than two months ago, Portsmouth FC sat 23rd in the Championship, two points off rock bottom. Many expected Pompey to struggle as a newly promoted side and it looked like the South Coast side were living up to expectations. Fast forward eight weeks and the club are closer to the top ten than they are the bottom three with plenty of breathing room.

To put things into perspective, Portsmouth have earned 19 points from their last 11 games (6W, 1D, 4L) which is almost the same total that John Mousinho’s men had accumulated during the first 25 matches of the season (23 points, 5W, 8D, 12L). The young head coach, who is in his first managerial role since retiring in 2023, has done a remarkable job to turn Pompey’s season around and there are multiple factors behind this recent success.

Improved Players

There have been several players who have seen their goal contributions almost double in the eight-week window of focus. Colby Bishop has seen his goal tally of three rise to six, Connor Ogilvie has scored two to take his total to four and Matt Ritchie has gone from a single goal to four come matchweek 36. With the likes of Callum Lang slowing down in form, others have had to step up and produce game-winning moments.

Maintaining a Core Group

Newly promoted teams often face the dilemma of choosing between keeping the players that got them into the new division around or forming a completely fresh team. Mousinho has managed to blend both worlds. Ogilvie, Marlon Pack, Lang, Bishop, Paddy Lane and Christian Saydee form a group of six players who played over 1,800 minutes of football in the 2023/24 season, and have once again already all played over 1,100 minutes on the pitch this year. Keeping familiarity around the training ground is often overlooked and is something that has helped fellow promoted side Oxford United stay afloat this season, and was also exemplified at Plymouth Argyle last season.

New Faces Helping Out

Whilst Isaac Hayden’s Newcastle career is over, he still has plenty of experience to help out a Championship club like Portsmouth. Whilst his time on loan at the likes of Norwich was not awfully successful, his loan signing in January has coincided with Pompey’s uptick in form. Hayden has started in defensive midfield for five of his club’s six wins over the last eight weeks and has slotted into Mousinho’s team effortlessly. Other January loan signings like Rob Atkinson and Adil Aouchiche have also helped thicken out the squad depth as well as permanent signing Hayden Matthews.

Referencing back to Mousinho’s ability to blend new with old, Portsmouth made five key signings in the summer who have all been smart coups. Josh Murphy made the move from Oxford to Portsmouth ahead of the season, after a dry patch in December and January, the winger has come good since February, with a goal and five assists including a pivotal performance against QPR.

Nicolas Schmid has also been a season-defining signing, displacing Will Norris as Pompey’s No.1 after matchweek eight, the Austrian has kept six clean sheets in 27 matches. Fifty percent of his clean sheets have come during Portsmouth’s current uptick in form, and his year on the South Coast was summarised by an amazing performance against Leeds United last weekend. Andre Dozzell and Freddie Potts were also brought in as Mousinho’s two holding midfielders behind the four forward thinking players, and have so far also proven to be beneficial signings.

A Tight Defence

Portsmouth conceded 1.76 goals per game on average during their first 25 matches of the season and had a goal difference of minus 14. Since then their defence has drastically improved, with a positive goal difference in their last 11 and a statistic of 1.18 goals against per game. In their last eight games, all three of Portsmouth’s losses have been limited to just a single goal between the sides, even against Sheffield United. Despite being one of the lower scorers in the league in that time frame (eight games), Pompey have had the third best defence in the league, never conceding more than two in a match.

Portsmouth’s defence has finally clicked and without such solidity at the back, they would still be in the bottom three. Whether it be Atkinson, Pack, Matthews, Conor Shaughnessy or Regan Poole paired in front of the goalkeeper, Mousinho has managed to get his centre halves to gel together, a move that might have completely saved his side’s season.

Tomorrow night, they face 24th placed Plymouth Argyle in a tie that, if won, could see Portsmouth stretch even further away from the drop zone, and edge them closer to survival. After 12 long seasons away from the second tier, the Hampshire side and former Premier League regulars were not prepared to fall back down to League One after working so hard to get there, and the evidence of that is on the Fratton Park pitch for all to see.