By Bulldog Drummond
Portsmouth are a League One (ie third tier) team, chasing promotion. In this League, the top two are automatically promoted; next four compete enter into the playoffs (two semi-finals and a final), with the winner gaining the third promotion spot. Here’s the League One table at present.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rotherham United | 33 | 18 | 7 | 8 | 59 | 34 | 25 | 61 |
| 2 | Coventry City | 32 | 16 | 13 | 3 | 46 | 30 | 16 | 61 |
| 3 | Portsmouth | 33 | 17 | 8 | 8 | 51 | 32 | 19 | 59 |
| 4 | Wycombe Wanderers | 33 | 17 | 8 | 8 | 44 | 37 | 7 | 59 |
| 5 | Sunderland | 33 | 16 | 10 | 7 | 46 | 27 | 19 | 58 |
| 6 | Peterborough United | 33 | 16 | 7 | 10 | 65 | 39 | 26 | 55 |
| 7 | Fleetwood Town | 32 | 15 | 10 | 7 | 48 | 36 | 12 | 55 |
Although there are technically 24 teams in the league, in effect this season there are only 23 since Bury went bust earlier this season and are not playing their fixtures. To make up the numbers for the 2020/21 season only, the EFL have now reduced the number of relegation places at the end of 2019/20 from League One to League Two, down to three.
So as things stand at the top Portsmouth are heading for a playoff position with Wycombe, Sunderland and Peterborough – but of course there’s still a way to go. It may well be that although Portsmouth will be excited by playing Arsenal, their main thoughts are with promotion – which would bring higher income to the club, and of course exemption next season into the FA Cup until Round 3, which could mean a big tie, and major income boost all of its own.
Portsmouth have shown themselves to be a particularly strong team at home being undefeated thus far.
Home games only
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wycombe Wanderers | 18 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 34 | 20 | 14 | 42 |
| 2 | Portsmouth | 17 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 34 | 13 | 21 | 41 |
| 3 | Sunderland | 18 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 33 | 11 | 22 | 37 |
| 4 | Peterborough United | 16 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 39 | 13 | 26 | 36 |
| 5 | Fleetwood Town | 17 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 25 | 13 | 12 | 36 |
They are the joint top scorers at home and have the fifth-best defence, conceding under one goal a game at home on average (while scoring over two goals per game).
Since the start of the year they have been having a strong home run, although in February they did suffer two away defeats in league games. I’ve removed the three Football League Trophy games from the sequence although they won all three.
| Date | Game | Res |
Score | Competition |
| 01 Jan 2020 | Gillingham v Portsmouth | D | 1-1 | League One |
| 04 Jan 2020 | Fleetwood Town v Portsmouth | W | 1-2 | FA Cup |
| 11 Jan 2020 | Portsmouth v AFC Wimbledon | W | 2-1 | League One |
| 18 Jan 2020 | Bolton Wanderers v Portsmouth | W | 0-1 | League One |
| 25 Jan 2020 | Portsmouth v Barnsley | W | 4-2 | FA Cup |
| 28 Jan 2020 | Lincoln City v Portsmouth | W | 0-2 | League One |
| 01 Feb 2020 | Portsmouth v Sunderland | W | 2-0 | League One |
| 08 Feb 2020 | Tranmere Rovers v Portsmouth | W | 0-2 | League One |
| 11 Feb 2020 | Coventry City v Portsmouth | L | 1-0 | League One |
| 15 Feb 2020 | Portsmouth v Shrewsbury Town | W | 2-0 | League One |
| 22 Feb 2020 | Fleetwood Town v Portsmouth | L | 1-0 | League One |
| 25 Feb 2020 | Portsmouth v Milton Keynes Dons | W | 3-1 | League One |
| 28 Feb 2020 | Portsmouth v Rochdale | W | 3-0 | League One |
So it is six consecutive home wins for Portsmouth. Their one home slip up came in the League Cup against another south coast team: Premier League Southampton on 24 September when they lost at home 0-4. Since then they have been winning at home pretty much all the way.
Historically their highlight was winning the FA Cup in 2008, part of the era in which they had Kanu playing for them – although all the reward he got was a failure to pay his salary. It appears he started to sue them, but then in order to help the club survive he let them off and stopped the case. I do hope they appreciated the gesture.
Portsmouth were relegated in 2010 while getting to the cup final again. In 2012 they went from the Championship to League 1 and in 2013 down again to League 2 which they finally won in 2017. The last couple of seasons they have finished 8th and 4th, and are obviously now looking to rise up to the Championship to continue their rise back to the upper reaches. That would mean exemption in the Cup until the 3rd round and enhanced chances of a big payment from just one match.
And here’s a bit of fun:
Portsmouth are one of only two clubs to have been champions of five professional divisions: the 1st, 2nd, 3rd (south), League One and League Two. The other club is Wolverhampton who included the 3rd Division (north) in their list.
\eve v \mun Manu score an own goal but VAR says its off side!! What a load of bullshit. Everton robbed of a win. The goal was good.
The cheating goes on. How can an injured non active player be off side when you put the ball in your own net!!!
Sounds odd Menace. I wasn’t watching, but this is what Eurosport has:
I gather the ball would not have crossed the goal line, had the Everton player not move. It is a most extraordinary situation.
Same Eurosport article has a blurb on Pickford:
I’ve played some goal, and I think I got caught by a situation like this (and the ball was kicked from near where the sideline and centreline meet). I’ve got astigmatism. Which can be viewed as a rotation. Most people have this rotation a little off horizontal? I have it a little off vertical.
I’ve no idea if such a thing might be affecting Pickford. Even when this happened to me, you could get weighted contact lenses to correct for it.
This business about being offside on an own goal has been bandied about a bit. One place it has shown up, is some of the FIFA games.
Because of its complexity, I think that 😈 Mike Riley is not going to address it in the medja. He is just going to let people assume his people were correct.
Clear and Obvious Errors
VAR is meant to correct clear and Obvious Errors. In the EPL, there is _no interest_ in doing so. PGMO has an extensive history if tilting the pitch to satisfy unknown sources of need. It may be that other jurisdiction make considerable use of the pitchside monitors so that the referee on the field can lead the discovery as to what happened in an event.
It is an offence for players to intrude on VAR, which most people seem to talk about as that games room in Stockley Park (Wembley?). It is also the pitchside monitor. The EPL hasn’t used the pitchside monitor (well, once they did), so there has never been an intrusion on the pitchside monitor.
IFAB seems to be wanting to force PGMO to make use of the pitchside monitors, and to have the referee appear to be the head official of a game. This is contrary to the desires of 😈 Mike Riley and PGMO. PGMO want the unseen VAR in far away Wembley to be the chief arbitrator of what happens on the pitch. PGMOP wants for there to be no possibility of justifying those decisions to people at the grounds.
If the referees start to use the pitchside monitors, players and team staff will intrude on the pitchside monitor; and they will be disciplined for it. PGMO do not want the on field referee to have any more information, and the pitchside monitor could easily just be showing cartoons as to be showing game footage. The VAR in Wembley will be telling the referee what the desire of the all knowing Riley is, while the referee is busy watching Rocky and Bullwinkle (or whatever).
http://www.insideworldfootball.com/2020/03/02/ifab-tiptoes-round-var-rules-handball-laws-concussion-subs-get-revisions/
Questions to Ask
A while ago, Tony presented a list of questions that need to be asked by the medja. PlayTheGame has a similar list of questions, revolving around the Football Leaks saga.
https://www.playthegame.org/news/comments/2020/0996_football-leaks-raises-many-questions-also-for-the-media/
@Gord -Stockley Park is in Hayes Middx. in the London Borough of Hillingdon.
Thanks Menace. 🙂
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OT: Mirror: Premier League considering VAR change that would affect Liverpool, Arsenal and Man Utd
What a stupid headline for an article. It implies that this change, whatever it is would not affect, Man$ity, Leicester, Chel$ea, Wolves, Spuds, Sheffield, Burnley, Everton, CPalace, Southampton, Newcastle, Brighton, StateAid, Watford, Bournemouth, AVilla or Norwich.
Supposedly, the change being talked about is for fans to be able to hear what is being said between the stadium and Stockley Park (VAR) by the referee and other officials.
I can’t see it happening, PGMO wants this to be secret. And the article does not try to explain how implementing it (which I doubt) would not affect the other teams listed.
OT: The Guardisnfjjknfk: Habitually miserable Arsenal fans finally crack a smile
Another horrible headline. Why would Arsenal fans be miserable? Might it be because the medja have to bash Arsenal all the time?
Up yours Guardkldfkjfnjnfdgjnvfjnflkjnkjnbf!