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Blues could hardly have wished for a better start when returning duo Martin Grainger and Tommy Mooney combined to provide the opening for John to score. Grainger's quickly taken throw in was crossed into the danger area by Mooney, and after Linvoy Primus mistimed his header, John was on hand to bring the ball down and beat evergreen Dave Beasant from close range. Little did the jubilous Blues fans know that this was as good as it was going to get.
Blues continued to pressurise for the next 10 minutes or so, but soon dropped so deep that Portsmouth were simply allowed possession for minutes at a time. Although the majority of their play was restricted to outside our final third, with the inspirational Croatian Robert Prosinecki pulling the strings in midfield, there was always a danger. Prosinecki himself twice went close during a drab first half that Portsmouth probably shaded.
The second half brought with it several more chances for both teams. Pompey substitute Vine could hardly have wished for a better opportunity than that which was presented to him following Gary O'Neil's drive which thundered off the post and left Vine with the simple task of knocking the ball into the completely unguarded net from around 3 yards out. However, Vine somehow managed to blast the ball high and wide, and Blues were let off.
Blues themselves should have doubled their lead when substitute Geoff Horsfield played in Bryan Hughes, who should have scored when one on one with Beasant, who made a good save.
Portsmouth's equaliser came amidst a certain amount of controversy. The livewire Pitt was played through on the left, when it appeared he was offside. Michael Hughes had to hack him down to prevent his route to the byline or to Nico Vaesen's goal. From the resulting free kick, Blues failed to clear the ball and Pitt hit a left foot volley which somehow crept inside Vaesen's far post to send the travelling Portsmouth fans wild.
There was more controversy too towards the end, when Horsfield was denied two penalties - the first claim bringing about a yellow card to the Blues forward for diving. To most people, both appeared to be justifiable penalty claims, yet neither were awarded. In truth though, the game should never have had to be decided by a referee's decision one way or the other, as given the start that they got, and backed by an impressive crowd, Blues should really have gone all out to put Portsmouth to the sword, but for some reason all that happened was that the defence dropped back, so did the midfield, and consequently our forwards were isolated and Pompey were allowed the lion's share of possession.
One worry for Blues was Michael Johnson's apparent calf injury which meant the defender had to be withdrawn from the action and be replaced by Darren Purse midway through the first half. A Blues home game never seems to go by without Johnson requiring some treatment or other. Another worrying aspect is Blues' terrible, terrible attempts from set pieces currently. Grainger takes every single set piece in an attacking position, and rarely does anything remotely threatening ever occur. With players such as Michael Hughes, Bryan Hughes, Stan Lazaridis and Damien Johnson in the team, surely a better option would to be at least mix it up a little, or strip Grainger of the responsibility totally, and let someone with a more cultured set piece have a crack.
The single point does lift Blues back into the Top Six, and with Wednesday's game in hand over Crewe Alexandra, Blues still have to be fancied to make the end of season lottery. However, this abysmal performance will have done little to encourage further the optimistic Blues fans hoping for a day out in Cardiff on May 12th. A performance that lacked tempo, lacked guts, lacked style and most of all lacked any real cohesion will simply not do should Blues make the play offs.
Richard Barker
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