Play Up Pompey

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Play Up Pompey​

Portsmouth Football Club are a professional football team based on the south coast of England in Portsmouth, Hampshire. They currently compete in the English Football League Championship, the second tier of English football.

The club play their home games at Fratton Park, with a capacity of just shy of 21,000 supporters. Sharing their nickname, Pompey, with the local Naval Base in Portsmouth, the club were formed in 1898 and have played in blue and white since 1912 when they adopted their famous colours.

Portsmouth's early years began in the localised Southern and Western leagues, before being elected into the English Football League in 1920 as part of the newly formed Third Division. Two early promotions followed in 1924 and 1927 which saw the side rise to the First Division, becoming the first club south of London to do so.

Portsmouth's first major trophy came in 1939 when they won the FA Cup, having previously finished runners up twice in England's most prestigious domestic cup competition. They actually held that trophy for 7 years as normal football was suspended due to World War II. No club has ever held the trophy for such a long period and it is likely such a circumstance will ever occur again.

Once the war was over and football resumed in England, Portsmouth established themselves as one of the country's best sides, winning back to back First Division titles in 1948/49 and 1949/50. However, 10 years later, the club's fortunes changed drastically as they suffered relegations in 1959 and 1961 to find themselves back in the third tier. They didn't recover immediately either and in 1978 were relegated once again down to the Fourth Division.

Then 1980's were big for Portsmouth as they looked to rebuild and join England's elite clubs once again. They achieved the feat, winning three promotions in the decade (1980, 1983 and 1987) and were once again back in the top tier. But it was short lived as they were immediately relegated to the Second Division again, where they would remain for 15 years until 2003. During that time, the club also suffered their first round of financial troubles, when Terry Venables was famously able to buy a 51 percent stake in the club for just £1 in 1997, which he sold back just a year later.

During this time, the English football pyramid had also been restructured and the Second Division had effectively become the First Division (but still the second tier) with the birth of the English Premier League in 1992. It was in 2002/23 that Pompey were promoted to the Premier League for the first team and started to establish themselves as a modern day elite club, capped off by winning the 2008 FA Cup, only the second time they have ever won the trophy. During their Premier League reign, they were managed twice by Harry Redknapp who geared the club to a 9th placed finish in 2006/07 and 8th in 2007/08 after making some marquee signings that included Nwankwo Kanu, Arjan De Zeeuw, Sol Campbell, Glen Johnson, Milan Baros, Jermaine Defoe, David James and Niko Kranjcar.

That was about as good as it got as Portsmouth were then plagued by financial troubles once again and after being forced to sell off some of their best players and Harry Redknapp leaving the club for a second time, they were relegated in 2009/10 (although they did still make the FA Cup final again that year, losing to Chelsea).

And it wasn't the end of it either, as the club were forced into administration yet again in 2012, for the second time in 2 years. The club's troubles off the pitch were transferred onto it and they were relegated twice in two seasons and found themselves labouring in League 2 in 2013/14, virtually starting from scratch in a bid to rebuild the club and climb back up the pyramid. But it wasn't as easy as some might have been expecting, with 4 long seasons spent in the 4th tier before finally winning the league in 2016/17. League One proved even more of a struggle to conquer, taking a total of 7 seasons to finally win it and get back to the Championship.

The aim last season was simply to stay in the Championship and it was achieved with a 16th placed finish and now I take over as the new manager to see if I can lead them back to the promised land of the Premier League once again!

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The Squad​

Goalkeepers

I'm not quite sure why the first team squad has 5 keepers in it, but I will certainly be looking to trim this by 1 or 2. Austrian, Nicolas Schmid, is head and shoulders above the rest and will clearly be the number 1 between the sticks for us this season. My only concern is that he doesn't have much in the way of competition for his spot in the team and should he pick up an injury, we might be in a spot of bother.

Defenders

For a club predicting to struggle in the bottom half of the table this season, our defence actually doesn't look too bad. We have good numbers across the back line and what looks like decent cover for each position as well. Josh Knight is the main man at the heart of the defence and his form this season could be imperative to any success we might have.

Meanwhile, right back Terry Devlin is a player I'll be looking to work with and develop. At just 21 years old, he is still likely to start his fair share of games and is one of the highest rated potential players at the club, so we will look to nurture that and bring out the best in the youngster.

Defensive Midfielders & Midfielders

Loads and loads of options here and a couple of our best players too. I certainly won't be able to complain about a lack of depth in the team this season and we should have all the cover we need for injuries or suspensions throughout the year. John Swift is a player that has played 353 professional games throughout his career with majority of them being at Championship level with West Brom and Reading, so he is someone I should really be looking to build the team around.

Also, Josh Murphy, twin brother of Newcastle's Jacob, will be one of our main threats down either wing and I'll be looking to him to both create and score goals.



Attacking Midfielders & Strikers

OK this is where I might need to do some work. We do have plenty of players that can attack from out wide or play up front, but the quality if severely lacking and it is hard to see a 20 goal a season man here. Conor Chaplin, on loan from Ipswich is a fantastic player and probably the best in our whole squad, but he can't be relied upon to do everything himself...but I will be utilizing him to make use of his key strengths and work other players off him.

Colby Bishop is the main striker at the moment, but needs some competition as I am not sure he is good enough to put the ball in the back of the net often enough for us. He only managed 11 goals in this division last year.

Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of transfer budget to make any major improvements to my squad right away. I'll either need to shift some players to raise funds or look to the loan market.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

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July 2025​

After settling in to my role and meeting my squad, it was time to meet with the board and go over the objectives that were discussed at my interview. There is no doubt that the initial expectation is to establish ourselves as a Championship side and not get drawn into any relegation battles, whilst working within the wage budget to ensure the financial stability of the club.

The club have loftier ambitions than just remaining in the second tier though and the 5 year goal is to get Portsmouth back challenging at the top of this division and pushing for the playoffs to eventually get ourselves back in the Prem.

Player Sold; Then I got down to work and addressed the first issue of having too many keepers in the squad right away. Jordan Archer is the first player to leave the club under my watch, as the 32 year old keeper moves to St Johnstone in a deal worth £130k.

I then managed to add a little bit more into the transfer budget by adjusting the bonuses for the year. It's not realistic to think we will go far in any of the cup competitions so I'm not too worried about incentivising the players for these. I therefore dropped the bonus level and added £300k to the transfer kitty.

We played 5 friendlies in the month of July, with one to play still in August before the season kicks off (against Gent). The pre season was decent enough with some comfortable wins over some lower opposition before we got a hiding from Wolves. However, I'm not too concerned about that as I rotated and rested most of the first team for the first half and after I made 8 changes at half time, we were much better in the second half - probably the better side and drew it 0-0.

 

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August 2025​

Our final pre season friendly ended in an unexpected but very welcome 4-0 win over Belgian side Gent. A fluid counter attack style worked a treat and we took our chances well, whilst limiting them to zero clear cut chances even though they did manage 21 shots at our goal in the game. I expected us to be under the kosh for large periods which we were, but we played the counter attacking football down a tee.

Here is that tactic which I'll be looking to employ in the early stages of our Championship campaign and see how it goes. Each player does have their own individual player roles and instructions depending on their strengths and preferred positions.

EFL Championship
Matchday 1 - Norwich (Away)

Going away to Norwich wasn't the easiest assignment on the opening day of the season, but conceding 4 times in any game is never good. We weren't terrible here and can take some positives from our attacking play, but we must defend better if we are going to compete this season.

After just a single league game, we were thrust straight into cup action and our first round tie in the Carabao Cup would pit us against our local rivals, Southampton.

The fixture is widely recognised as the South Coast Derby, contested between the two most successful sides on the south coast of England. Despite both clubs having a history of more than 125 years a piece, the Derby has actually been contested less than 80 times due to the clubs playing majority of their seasons in different divisions. This year, with this cup tie, it will be played at least 3 times more! It hasn't always been as fierce a rivalry as it is today, as recently as the 1970's one team's fans would often go to watch the other one when their team was away from home. However, by the late 70's Southampton were a team on the rise and Portsmouth were heavily in decline and a likely birth of rivalry came from a level of changing fortunes, bragging and bitterness. Football hooliganism was also on the rise around the same time and most likely had a contributing factor to the bitter rivalry that exists today.

One perfect recent example of how deep the rivalry now runs, was proven in 2015 when Emirates airline became sponsors of the Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower and wanted to paint it in their famous red and white colours. Because these are the colours of Southampton, more than 10,000 Portsmouth residents signed a petition against it and in the end, the local council came to an agreement with Emirates that they would actually paint the tower in blue and gold...football fan power demonstrated to it's fullest right there.

Carabao Cup
First Round - Southampton (Home)

I think I might need to look at my game management. We went into a 2-0 lead in this one on 64 minutes and couldn't see the game out, allowing Southampton to turn the game on it's head and we end up losing. I have no excuses for letting this one slip...it's a difficult press conference after the game where I can only apologise to the fans and ask them to bare with me in these early stages of my career.

New Signing; Gonzalo Escalante
Fee; Free transfer

Time for a new signing and a bit of experience into the club. Gonzalo Escalante is an Argentinian central midfielder who has played for the likes of Eibar, Lazio and Cadiz all at La Liga and Serie A level, so he has to be seen as a good signing for us at the age of 32, with a good couple of years left in him yet.

EFL Championship
Matchday 2 - Birmingham City (Away)

Well this is not good. We knew Birmingham would be a tough away day but to concede 6 goals is simply unacceptable. Again, we showed promise in our attacking play but it doesn't matter how many we score if we are going to let goals in for fun. I may just need to go back to the tactic drawing board as what I am working with is clearly not working.

EFL Championship
Matchday 3 - Swansea City (Home)

A change of tactic to a 4-1-2-3 saw an improved defensive performance as we only concede 2 here. However, that seemed to come at the expense of some attacking flair and a single goal from a direct free kick from Swifty is all we could manage and I continue to struggle to find a balance between defence and attack.

EFL Championship
Matchday 4 - Middlesbrough (Away)

Get in there...first win under my management and first points on the board for the season. I have to admit I didn't expect to get much away at Boro based on how the first few games of the season had gone, but we were brilliant here! The better side definitely won the game and we dominated majority of the match and should have probably won by a wider margin! Swifty popped up with the winner in injury time with a close range half volley.

Despite that win over Boro, we do finish the opening month of the season still in the relegation zone. However, it was certainly a much needed result to hopefully give us a platform to build upon in September.

Player of the Month
Yang Min-Hyeak

Yang has started the campaign in excellent form, bagging 4 assists in his 4 appearances this month. His creativity is going to continue to be key for us moving forward I'm sure!

As we look ahead to next month, there's another 6 league games to play as the relentless Championship fixture list hits us square in the face. We do have four of those games at home in front of our home fans and will need to make the most of that advantage as we attempt to climb up the table.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

September 2025
Getting To Grips With It

EFL Championship
Matchday 5 - Preston (Home)

It's back to back victories and our first home win of the season as well. Callum Lang comes in up top for the injured Colby Bishop and makes the most of his opportunity by bagging a brace.

EFL Championship
Matchday 6 - Bristol City (Home)

After two wins, we taste defeat once again at the hands of Bristol City. What a spectacle of attacking football from both sides though and neither set of fans can go home saying they weren't entertained. Unfortunately for us, we were on the wrong end of the result today, but Bristol City had only conceded 3 goals in their opening 5 games before this so it shows we really did give their usually watertight defence a nightmare. I'll put this one down as unlucky.

EFL Championship
Matchday 7 - Stoke City (Away)

Stoke haven't made the greatest start to their season, sitting 22nd at kick off here. And we heaped on the pressure as we inflict another defeat on them, keeping our second clean sheet of the season in the process. A solid display from my lads and Florian Bianchini nets the winner with a powerful effort which takes a deflection on it's way in from 16 yards out.

EFL Championship
Matchday 8 - Leicester City (Home)

Without a doubt our best result of the season so far as we beat recently relegated Leicester at Fratton Park. Won't lie that I was a bit nervous when they levelled things up at 2-2 after we went 2-0 up, but we rallied well, composed ourselves and actually dominated the rest of the game. Florian Bianchini was awesome down the right wing and Leicester couldn't deal with him as he helped himself to a goal and an assist.

Injury; Just as we were starting to build some momentum and get ourselves into a good run of form, tragedy has struck! Number 1 keeper, Nicolas Schmid will now miss majority of the season after fracturing his leg in training!

I have two keepers to choose from, with very little between them on ability. The comparison below shows that either one of them can make a claim for the spot in the first team and I'll likely give both an opportunity to show what they can do and work from there. One thing is for sure though, neither are anywhere near as good as Schmid.

EFL Championship
Matchday 9 - Charlton (Home)

It was actually against the run of play when we took the lead through a John Swift penalty after Connor Ogilvie had been brought down in the box as he dribbled in from the left back position. Swifty then turned provider as he assisted Josh Murphy for his strike which hit the back of the net from 10 yards out. The game was then over at that point as Charlton never looked like getting back into it and the points were well and truly sealed when Callum Lang scored again to continue justifying his position up front as he keeps Colby Bishop out of the side.

Next up was a trip to Wales, with some Hollywood stars in attendance.

EFL Championship
Matchday 10 - Wrexham (Away)

Things didn't go to plan as on loan Chelsea striker Marc Guiu scored an 85th minute winner for Wrexham. Might have been a bit of poor in game management from me as I went attacking in the last 10 minutes to try to steal the points for ourselves, when maybe I should have been happy to settle for a draw.

It's been a great month for us and 4 victories have seen us rise into the top half of the table. I feel settled into the job now and the lads are really adapting to my tactics and way of playing football. Hopefully it hasn't just been a one off run of good form and we can maintain this level going forward.

Player of the Month
Callum Lang

Lang wasn't my first choice striker at the start of the season, but Colby Bishop picked up a minor injury and Callum stepped in and hasn't looked back. He has maintained an average rating of 7.47 over his last 5 matches, bagging 3 goals and 3 assists as well. I do love it when a player steps in and makes a place in the team their very own, when you had initially overlooked them.

Our schedule is not so 'full on' next month with just 4 matches to play. The Oxford and Blackburn games are certainly ones we should be targeting for wins, with them sides sitting 14th and bottom of the table at present. QPR will likely present the toughest challenge as they have started their season very well, currently occupying 5th place in the table and are the top scorers in the division with 24 goals in 10 games.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

October 2025
Recovering From A Mini Poor Run Of Form

Some information from the data analysis team makes for some positive reading after the opening 10 games of the Championship season, as we seem to be performing above average in all areas right now.

EFL Championship
Matchday 11 - Oxford United (Away)

Our first draw of the season comes at Oxford, in a tightly contested game where a point a piece was probably a fair result. Segecic got our goal off the bench, a nice strike from just inside the 18 yard box.

EFL Championship
Matchday 12 - QPR (Home)

Rangers have been the most free scoring team in the league so far this season and we could only hold them at bay for 53 minutes before they put the ball in the back of our net too. Once they had one, they seemed to settle into a rhythym and we couldn't keep them off us after that and fall to defeat and that's now three games without a win.

A big managerial appointment in the Championship as Leicester bring in Steven Gerrard to take over the reigns. The Foxes haven't made the start to their season that they would have hoped after being relegated from the top flight last year and sit 18th as Stevie G takes over, with just 4 wins from 12 games.

EFL Championship
Matchday 13 - Watford (Home)

We got back to winning ways with a good old fashioned 1-0 win. A solid defensive display means that Swifty's left footed strike from close range was enough to secure the points and put an end to a bad run.

Stevie G's first game in charge at Leicester resulted in a win too. Could this be a start of a resurgence for them?

EFL Championship
Matchday 14 - Blackburn Rovers (Away)

A 10/10 performance from Colby Bishop inspired a fightback from 2-0 down for us to go on and absolutely batter Rovers in front of their own fans. It was a deserved result as well as we were well in control of this game from the off, which seems weird to say when we went 2-0 down. Even after they went a couple in front, I still felt like it was there for the taking for us as we had dominated from the off...all we needed to do was take our chances and we did just that!

When you are overachieving in your role, there is only one thing that is better than that and that's seeing your main rivals in turmoil. Southampton were one of the pre season favourites to win this division this year, but instead find themselves emroiled in the relegation battle at present in 19th position. And ultimately, that has cost Will Still his job.

Meanwhile, we retain our position in the top 10 at the end of October, after 14 games. I maybe should be looking at the teams above us right now, but I am still focused on the realism of looking behind us right now at how far the chasing pack might be in looking to avoid relegation.

Player of the Month
Andre Dozzell

Andre played a pivotal role in both of our wins this month, but especially against Blackburn where he scored and grabbed two assists.

We kick off November with a Derby against our fiercest rivals in what will be a much busier month. There is a good opportunity to have a good start to the month as all three of our first opponents sit in the current bottom 5!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

November 2025
Two More Big Injuries May Hamper Progress

EFL Championship
Matchday 15 - Southampton (Home)

Our managerless rivals are sent home on their sorry way with zero points and our fans are going to enjoy their Saturday night! Great result and well deserved as we were the better side throughout!

EFL Championship
Matchday 16 - Derby County (Away)

Another solid defensive showing from my lads, although we lacked a little in attack and had to rely on a penalty to take the points home. But it is another 3 points and another big step in the right direction.

EFL Championship
Matchday 17 - Sheffield Wednesday (Away)

I feel a bit conflicted with this result. When you're a team that is predicted to finish in the bottom half, then any point away from home should be seen as a good one. But we are flying high at the moment and Wednesday are in the relegation zone, so it feels more like an opportunity wasted. But it is a point I suppose and that's better than nothing.

Injury; Conor Shaughnessy has been a constant in my starting lineup this season and the centre back has played OK without being spectacular, maintaining an average rating of 6.81 in the Championship. However, I'll now be without him for a couple of months as he recovers from a fractured ankle, so someone else will get a chance to step up.

I had actually been favouring Shaughnessy over Regan Poole who does have a regular starter status with us, so it's probably not the worst swap out to be honest and I have every confidence that Poole will come in and do a decent job.

EFL Championship
Matchday 18 - Ipswich Town (Home)

The Tractor Boys are living up to their pre season billing as title favourites and do sit at the top of the table. They proved too strong for us here as well, although we did give them a game and weren't run over like a lot of people might have expected us to be. We might even have knicked a draw at the end as well, if Luke Le Roux's effort had just snuck 2 inches to the left with just a couple of minutes to go...it was a big miss from not far out!

Injury; The injury list is getting longer as we lost Florian Bianchini to a calf strain in the Ipswich game and he will be out for a couple of months.

Now he will be a massive miss for us as the on loan winger has 11 goal contributions in 15 appearances in the Championship so far this season!

Now here's some news I didn't expect. Ryan Reynolds has sold up at Wrexham and that will be the end of a Disney Plus series I have been really enjoying watching!

EFL Championship
Matchday 19 - Coventry City (Home)

This felt like our hardest fought win of the season so far. Coventry played some wonderful stuff at times, but we really worked hard to compete and take the points. Joe Bursik between the sticks had one of them incredible goalkeeper days where he pulled off some awesome saves, including a penalty as well!

EFL Championship
Matchday 20 - West Brom (Away)

Another game where we performed well against a top side and are unlucky to come away with nothing. West Brom are 2nd in the table so there is no shame in going to The Hawthorns and losing.

If you'd have given me top 7 after 20 games at the start of the season, I'd have bitten your hand off and never believed it possible, but that's exactly where we find ourselves. Let's hope we can keep it up for the rest of the season.

Player of the Month
Joe Bursik
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Joe has come into the side between the sticks and actually proved himself to be a suitable replacement for our number 1 keeper, Schmid. He bags the player of the month award for a couple of stand out performances this month and a clean sheet against Derby as well.

December looks like a busy month and we will start to play teams for the 2nd time this season. West Brom will be a big challenge, having just lost to them at their place, but home advantage might give us a chance to gain some revenge. Away days at Millwall and Hull will be tricky places to go, but I feel we can end the year with a win over Wrexham at home if we're at our best.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

December 2025
The Magic 40 Points

EFL Championship
Matchday 21 - Sheffield United (Home)

Disappointed with this one. Sheffield United are a decent side, of that there is no doubt, but they aren't exactly flying and even this win for them only lifts them to 14th in the table. A game I strongly feel we should have won, but never actually looked like doing so.

The FA Cup draw has handed us a difficult tie for the 3rd round. West Ham will visit Fratton Park and we will need to rely on home advantage to give us our best chance of knocking out the Premier League side.

EFL Championship
Matchday 22 - Millwall (Away)

Going into The Den is always a difficult away day and it proved so again here. We held our own and come away with a point, although the game wasn't hugely entertaining for either set of fans as both sides struggled to create any meaningful chances.

The preview of this year's youth intake looks promising. We have every reason to feel excited about a couple of young strikers who may be coming through the ranks and I look forward to March to see who lands in our youth team.

EFL Championship
Matchday 23 - Hull City (Away)

It's another 0-0 draw away from home and another point to take back to Portsmouth with us. A good result I think against a Hull side that came into this game off the back of a 4-0 win against Preston.

However, we have now gone 3 games without scoring a goal and this is a worrying trend that we need to put an end to before it becomes a major issue.

EFL Championship
Matchday 24 - West Brom (Home)

The whole focus was on scoring goals in this one after 3 matches without finding the back of the net. So I feared the worst when we went 1-0 down against a side sitting 3rd in the table. However, my lads rallied and recovered well and we went on to win the game...a massive result for us under the circumstances of our recent run. We threw everyone behind the ball for the last 5 minutes as we desperately held on to keep all three points.

EFL Championship
Matchday 25 - Charlton (Away)

A **** poor result after such a good one in the last game. No excuses...just not good enough.

EFL Championship
Matchday 26 - Wrexham (Home)

We absolutely got away with one here. We were outclassed for large periods of the game, but still managed to come away with the victory.

We finish the calendar year on the magic 40 points and relegation fears are now a distant memory. Will we fall off a cliff in 2026 or will we push on for the playoffs, that is the question!

Player of the Month
Regan Poole

We might have been pretty poor in front of goal this month, but we have been relatively strong in defence with 3 clean sheets and only 4 goals conceded in 6 games. At the heart of that defence has been Regan Poole.

In amongst 4 league games in January is an FA Cup tie against Premier League opposition. If anything, that is our lowest priority game as we look to get back on track in the Championship next month after a pretty poor run of form.