‘No real quality’: Sky Sports pundits share bleak Portsmouth survival verdict as battle intensifies with West Brom, Leicester City & Co
Pompey sit just one point above the relegation zone following Monday’s defeat to Derby County.
Former Pompey midfielder Tommy Smith has shared his concerns over the Blues’ survival hopes as the relegation picture took another twist on Monday evening.
And fellow Sky Sports pundit Curtis Davies has earmarked their upcoming home games against Leicester City and Oxford United as must win.
John Mousinho’s men continued their worrying run of form on Monday, with a 1-0 defeat to Derby County at Fratton Park.
This lumped further pressure on Pompey, whose advantage over the bottom three is now just one point following positive results for Blackburn Rovers, West Brom and Oxford United on the weekend.
The Blues are now winless in any of their previous five Championship matches - and have lost four successive games at Fratton Park.
Former Pompey man shares worrying survival verdict
Although Mousinho stressed after the defeat his men were not ‘playing poorly’, Smith, who amassed 22 outings during the 2009-10 campaign at PO4, is worried over his former side’s current form with nine games remaining.
Speaking on Sky Sports after the defeat, the ex-£1.8m Pompey signing said: ‘Four straight home defeats, they’re in a tricky position,’ the ex-Pompey, Watford and Sunderland man said on Sky Sports.
‘We were talking about the fixtures coming up, it’s not easy for this time of the season when every point counts. It’s going to be tough.
‘You look at Oxford and their recent form is a real upturn, West Brom unbeaten in three and just had a really convincing win at the weekend, Leicester have got a strong squad - can Gary Rowett find a bit of form?
‘I’d certainly be looking over my shoulder at Portsmouth and thinking ‘we aren’t scoring and our home form’s poor’. It’s a concern, it really is.
‘Particularly having watched them (against Derby), where there was a lot of huffing and puffing but no real quality.’
Sky Sports pundit on Pompey’s huge run-in
The run-in is well-and-truly underway, with nine games for Pompey to secure their Championship survival.
Among those are key fixtures against relegation rivals Oxford United (April 6) and Leciester City (April 18), which will both crucially be played at Fratton Park.
And Davies has made it clear the Blues have to come away victorious from both contests if they want to have a good chance of maintaining their second-tier status.
He added: I think for Pompey it’s about how you approach it. I feel like the Blackburn game, they approached it not to lose.
‘They didn’t want Blackburn to have a leg up on them and potentially jump above them.
‘Going into that Leicester game they have to see it as ‘we want to win this game, we want to take the three points and we want to jump above the relegation zone’ rather than worrying about what Leicester do.
‘I wouldn’t have seen West Brom getting any points and I wouldn’t have seen Oxford a few weeks ago, but their current form, who would bet on one of those finishing above Portsmouth right now?’
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