If you've opened this page hoping for an answer to the question 'Where do Pompey go from here?' I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I've been trying to come up with a solution to our woes, and it is beyond me, at least for now. More important is whether anyone at the club has the answer.
Increasingly, Andy Awford looks like he's run out of ideas. He's tried rotating his players, now he's tried not rotating them. Neither has worked for him in the past couple of months. He's given chances to pretty much everyone in his squad, he's got shot of a few, he's brought in a few. The upshot of all that is we're now too close to the Football League trapdoor for comfort.
To be 18th and just three points ahead of the team occupying the top relegation spot is unacceptable. If there's a team we should be three points off with our squad and budget, it's more like Newport County in sixth place. Were we that close to them, we'd be in the play-off zone and looking forward to an exciting end to the season. Instead, the only excitement on the horizon is of the stressful kind — discovering how deeply we might get drawn into the battle to avoid the Conference.
Last week, after the draw with Burton, I said on here that the positives outweighed the disappointment of failing to win. I was called a 'happy clapper' by one critic for saying so but I stand by my assessment of that game and performance.
This time, there were — again — positives, but this time, the negatives far outweigh them. If anything, the positives — ie, the way we played for a 15-minute spell in the first half, going ahead and putting the Southend defence under real pressure — add to the frustration of it all. Why can we play like that only in fits and starts? Why can't we put an average visiting team (which in my view is what Southend were) under the cosh from first til last?
Why do we only pile bodies into the box and show an ability to keep possession when we are chasing a game? Questions, questions, but who has the answers?
The tone of chairman Iain McInnes' programme notes suggest the board will feel they have a decision to make about the manager — either now, or after the Wycombe game, which completes a testing month of fixtures against the top sides.
McInnes described the Shrimpers' visit as a must-win game and said a total of four points from the Southend and Wanderers games was achievable. He was happy to say this whether or not it put pressure on the manager. Clearly it did and it would be fascinating to know if the two of them had any sort of conversation after this defeat.
I've been consistent in saying from the start of this slump that we shouldn't go for another managerial change. Others would have pulled the trigger well before Christmas — more and more would do it now.
I'm not going to change my view on that now — I maintain that the earliest we should make that change would be mid to late March if we are in danger then of ending in the bottom two. But it doesn't really matter what I think. I didn't think Guy Whittingham should have been sacked as early as he was, but the board felt otherwise. They may well take the same view now.
My worry would be — if Awford is axed, who replaces him? Gary Waddock hardly seems to have staked a claim for the top job since arriving as No2 — we haven't won a game since Alan McLoughlin left, as Macca's supporters will doubtless have noted.
There are not a gaggle of potential new managers out there waiting for the call. Would we really be much better off with a new man at the helm? Possibly in the short term, yes, but we can't look for short-term success and survival for the rest our Pompey lives. Awford himself will be hurting tonight as much as any fan. He will know how much time and effort he is putting into turning around the only club he has ever really known, but equally he will know time is running out if he is to be the man to do so.
In my view he is being let down by too many of his players. When you are in League Two, you have to accept you are not going to have a bunch of world-beaters trotting out in your team's shirts every week. But what you are entitled to expect is huge helpings of effort and commitment from each one, and I don't think we're getting that from all of them.
If we had 11 with the attitude of James Dunne, Paul Robinson or Jed Wallace, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in. But we haven't.
Those would be the three players I'd clear of any criticism after this win. I thought all three gave their all — Dunne especially, for me — though there will be plenty that don't see Wallace's performances as positively as I do.
Andy Barcham was unfortunate to be substituted for Ryan Taylor late on. Bringing on an extra striker was clearly the right thing to do, but most would have sacrificed someone else with Barcham having had a reasonable game and seen plenty of the ball.
Paul McCallum's late and so-needless red card has probably brought his loan from West Ham to a premature end, which is one less striker for Awford to select alongside Matt Tubbs. I wonder if Taytlor may prove Tubbs' best partner, because I remain unconvinced Craig Westcarr has the attitude or confidence from a striker we need in the position we're in.
At the back, we continue to let in too many soft goals — both Southend's efforts have to come into that category. Is Jack Whatmough, if fit, worth another go alongside Robinson? I don't think Joe Devera has done a lot wrong defensively, even if he does have his limitations on occasions when we're trying to play the ball out from the back.
And finally, I must mention Ricky Holmes. I'll be shouted down for saying it, and I admit I don't know the full story behind his departure, but my opinion is that we MUST get him back at the end of his month in Northampton and put him straight into the team.
It can't be coincidence that the Cobblers were below us when he made the move, but are now five points ahead of us. They've won three and drawn one with Holmes on the wing.
That, if you ask me, has been Awford's biggest transfer-market mistake. But if there's one thing that can still save the manager, maybe the transfer market is it.
If he can somehow find another loan player that has the effect Danny Hollands had at the end of last season, things may turn around. But without yet another injection of new blood, or a performance of unexpected inspiration at Wycombe next week from the existing lot, it's hard to see where the next win is coming from.
Pompey: Jones; Webster, Robinson, Devera, Shorey; Wallace, Dunne, Atangana (Hollands 61), Barcham (Taylor 74); Westcarr (McCallum 61), Tubbs. Subs not used: Poke, Chorley, Butler, Ertl
Referee: Lee Collins
Attendance: 15,573 (1,263 away fans)
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