'Good potential in there' - Portsmouth favourite reacts to Sunderland loss
Pompey were beaten for the first time in the league this season this weekend
Guy Whittingham believes Pompey have ‘potential’ despite their loss to Sunderland. Speaking on BBC Radio Solent, the club’s former striker and manager has said there are still positives to take from their first league defeat of the new season.
John Mousinho’s side were beaten 3-1 at home by the Black Cats. Prior to the match, they had drawn all three of their first few fixtures against Leeds United, Luton Town and Middlesbrough.
Pompey now have the international break coming up which is a chance for them to work on things on the training pitch. They then face West Brom next on Sunday 15th September.
Whittingham has delivered his verdict on their most recent outing and has said: “They had a lot of play (Sunderland), they looked dangerous. Portsmouth sort of dropped into the 18-yard box defensively and Sunderland had the ball around the edge a lot and created a bit of pressure.
“The first goal was unfortunate, it’s a shot that (Luke) Norris has saved well, it has come out to (Jordan) Williams who has hooked it clear but (Zak) Swanson’s three or four yards away and it has just hit him and gone in the net. It is one of those, it is unfortunate.
“You go in 1-0 down and then Sunderland came out straight away with a couple of quick goals in that second-half. You haven’t got your strongest back four out at the moment and you’ve got Williams playing centre-half. He just doesn’t take up those natural places a centre-half would take.
“It was a bit of a scrappy goal (the second one), (Alan) Browne has just poked it from a yard out with some questions about offside there. Then they caught caught on the counter-attack (for the third) by a player (Romaine Mundle) that they paid £2.5million for so this is what you come up against in this league. You have got to find ways to stay in the game. Portsmouth have done that (in other games).”
He added: “There is some good potential in there. Once you get that strong back four in then you are going to give yourself a better chance of doing better in games.
“Games don’t get easier in this league unfortunately. There’s new players coming in as well that will add to the squad. You are down because it’s a defeat but there are lots of things to look forward to.”
Pompey’s next opponents West Brom have made an impressive start to the campaign. They sit 2nd behind Sunderland and have 10 points on the board following their 1-0 win over Swansea City at The Hawthorns.