The mood could and should have been overwhelmingly positive as Portsmouth handed yet another boost to their bid to remain in the Championship with a 2-1 home win against Queens Park Rangers.
After collecting maximum points from games against Cardiff City and Oxford United, Pompey were in a confident mood ahead of their meeting with Marti Cifuentes’ side and that showed as Josh Murphy and Matt Ritchie both netted early in the second-half to put their side in control. Jimmy Dunne gave the visitors some hope of mounting a comeback when he halved the deficit with quarter of an hour remaining – but a depleted Portsmouth held on to secure secure a win that has taken them nine points clear of the relegation zone.
However, Pompey’s injury worries were further heightened after the likes of Rob Atkinson, Isaac Hayden, Zak Swanson and Hayden Matthews all picked up knocks throughout a hard-fought 90 minutes at Fratton Park. A calf injury forced Atkinson out of the action five minutes before half-time and both Hayden and Swanson were replaced by Terry Devlin and Marlon Pack during the second-half. There would be no respite for January signing Matthews as the centre-back was forced to end the game playing as a striker after suffering a leg injury.
With an injury list already containing the likes of Jacob Farrell, Callum Lang and Paddy Lane, there are some concerns Portsmouth’s ever-growing list of absentees could hamper their bid to extend their stay in the Championship beyond a solitary season. After Mousinho gave a rundown of his latest concerns in the aftermath of Saturday’s win, Pompey legend Guy Whittingham admitted the potential loss of four players has ‘put a bit of a dampener’ on what should be a positive day.
He said: “It’s nine points now clear of the relegation, so it looks positive from that point of view. It’s a bit worrying, that amount of injuries picked up in this game, Atkinson going off, Matthews going up front and not really being able to run, two more centre-halves out. That’s put a bit of a dampener on it but we will just have to see how the week goes and hopefully they will be ok.”
Discussion about this post