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Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Cherries could find that Pompey are back on the up

I don't think many clubs slip down the leagues has been quite as spectacular as Pompey's fall. While they flirted briefly with relegation for a while last season they pulled out an inner belief to mount a bit of a late surge up the table. But League Two is still where they are and while there are no guarantees I actually hope that Pompey do start to climb their way back up the leagues to bolster the number of southern teams in the higher divisions. They seem always in a rebuilding phase and the third change of manager in six months in the summer has marked another phase in the club's search for stability and better results. So are they up to giving AFCB a bit of a surprise?

Fogden is apparently injured with knee ligament damage.

 I think Portsmouth have a great chance of not only giving the Cherries a hard game although recent encounters might suggest that the difference between the teams has not closed as much as it might in recent years. Perhaps last season they turned the corner though. They took in players such as our own Wes Fogden and since then have added Craig Westcarr, Paul Jones, James Dunne and former Cherry Danny Hollands. Alex Wynter is a young defender signed on loan from Crystal Palace and Miles Storey is another notable loan signing from Swindon. Whether Andy Awford can get this group of players to combine well in such a short period of time will be the challenge, but a fresh look Portsmouth should be able to leave some of the baggage they have been carrying behind them so that they can press on now.

The AFCB match is likely to be their biggest pre-season game as they have been averaging crowds of 800-2500 for the other summer fixtures. If Andy Awford can get them playing well though the home crowd will soon turn up for Pompey's matches and playing AFCB may well spark off some of the fire that we are used to seeing in Pompey sides. I was down at Portsmouth Harbour at the weekend and it is the first time in a long time that I have visited the city and yet not seen a single Pompey shirt on view. Somehow I reckon the support for Pompey will be pretty vocal tonight though when the Cherries arrive at Fratton Park.

 Wes Fogden is out of action with an injury picked up during training during July.
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous29 July 2014 at 14:47

    A little patronising this. Those crowd figures are for AWAY games and were massively bolstered by traveling Pompey support. We have sold more than 10,000 season tickets (which I suspect is at least as many as Cherries have sold) and home crowds averaged 15,000 last season. Perhaps some research may have avoided these basic errors in what was otherwise a reasonable and fair posting !

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  2. Anonymous29 July 2014 at 15:47

    Agree with the comment above. I think the main error in this posting is the fact that they think Wes Fogden could be 'in action' against them tonight. I'm hoping they know more than us and that the serious knee injury Fogden has recently suffered (possibly ending his season before it has even begun) was in fact something minor - highly doubt it though! Research pays - fact!

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    1. Anonymous29 July 2014 at 17:42

      Research is overrated! That is not good news with Wes Fogden though, he has had some awful setbacks over the years.
      I was very glad to see that your club and Danny H matched so well. He was excellent for us before Charlton made him an offer he could not refuse and he seems to have done a fantastic job for you at the end of last season.

      You have had a few less-than-perfect managers recently under far-less-than-perfect circumstances. I was hoping that GW was going to work out but he did not and now Andy Awford appears to be "The One".

      Best of luck, except for competitive games against us.

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    2. Cherry Chimes29 July 2014 at 18:34

      Thanks Pompey fans for the update on Wes Fogden. It was not that well covered in the media from what I could see so I have updated the article and linked it to the news item I found on it. I wish Wes all the best - he has not been lucky with this after his injury against Woking at the start of last season.

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