Tuesdays top two tussle at Fratton Park, was intriguing, exciting and extremely nervy at times. It was a fascinating tactical battle played out in challenging conditions.
As has been the case many times this season, we saw a slight surprise with Mousinho’s teams selection, thankfully not down to injuries and absences this time. Lee Evans stepped in for Owen Moxon to partner Pack at the heart of The Blues midfield. As the boss would go on to mention is his post game interview, the experienced former Ipswich man had been brought in to try and give greater control following his tidy debut on Good Friday.
In the early exchanges it appeared that plan was coming to fruition, with Evans controlling the game in the double pivot, being available to get on the ball continuously and setting up Pompey attacks. This forced the hand of Derby boss Paul Warne to alter his sides out of possession approach, with the scheduled stop in play during the first half proving the opportune moment to tweak his sides setup.
With The Rams approach without the ball to stop the supply into Pompey’s midfield two not working as Warne would have liked, the change was made to get either Mendez-Liang or Joe Ward doing a man marking job on Evans for the remainder of the half. Evans was still mightily impressive on his full home debut, which bodes well for the rest of the remainder of the season.
The slight adjustment slowed any momentum that had been gathered from an energetic start, where The Blues had put their opponents on the back foot.
We knew heading into the game that Derby would be effective on the counter attack and this came to fruition with the opening goal. Saydee, who wasn’t at his best on the night losing the ball, saw a rapid transition, led by the pace of Blackett-Taylor. When Mous men are in possesion, Connor Ogilvie occupies a high and wide position on the left hand side, with Lane inverting into a more central position. The space vacated was punished to full extent, with a clear plan by Warne’s Rams executed to perfection to hand the visiting team the upper hand.
As we have become accustomed to now, Pompey’s response to going behind was excellent. Getting back on the front foot, that equalising goal in my opinion has to be one of the finest goals we have scored this season.
Joe Rafferty found himself in five yards of space, whips a reverse pass in to Bishop, whose deft touch sets it for Abu Kamara’s inside run off the back of Sibley. From there, the young winger shows coolness and quality to nutmeg the defender and slot the ball into the bottom corner. To carry that slick move off in such testing conditions, shows the quality of this Pompey side.
It was one of the only times on the evening that Kamara found himself free, with Derby having a clear plan to ‘double up’ on the Pompey’s in-form man, seeing Blackett-Taylor utilise his pace to offer support to the out of position Sibley at left back. At times throughout the game, it would look like two players occupying the position to limit the danger man.
The Rams were able to nudge themselves back in front again, once more with Ward finishing following Pompey surrounding the ball with a loose pass. It was from that strike that Derby were then able to show a bit of authority in the game and control the tempo up until the half time whistle, Pompey we’re still able to create one opening with Saydee blasting over, with the ball dropping quickly and skidding on the wet surface, with two defenders on the line, it would have been some finish.
From the offset of the second period, Derby set up in two banks of four, looking to limit spaces between lines for the home side and use the counter attack that had been so fruitful for them in the first 45. At times, there couldn’t have been more than 10 yards of space between their backline and midfield.
Pompey had be paitent and probing, but stayed consistent in their approach, not panicking or moving away from the brand of football that has brought us into this wonderful position. The Blues centre backs were magnificent once again, driving forward on numerous occasions with the ball, looking to inject pace into attacks and draw out the Derby midfield.
The introduction of Owen Moxon from the bench, was timely and much needed for The Blues. John Mousinho has consistently made his changes at pivotal moments and these decisions have had huge impacts on the performances and results on countless occasions.
Moxon occupied a higher position when we had the ball, thus freeing up more space for Marlon Pack to dictate the tempo. The January signing also injected some much needed energy into the teams performance, at a time when it felt that the game was getting away from Pompey. Within moments of coming on, he chased down a loose ball, thundering into a challenge that brought some impetus back into the crowd as well as his team mates.
Since his arrival, Moxon has had to adapt quickly to the gaffers style of play, at times being asked to play a more reserved role that he had been used to at Carlisle. The chains were off on this occasion, freeing him to get box to box and disrupt Derby’s deep block.
His recent performances, most notably away at Peterborough have been excellent, so he would have felt hard done by to be left out of the starting lineup for the big clash. What a way to get your first Pompey goal, with that rocket in front of the Fratton End securing a pivotal point in the promotion charge, at a time where it seemed the game was going to get away from The Blues.
From that point onwards, you felt there would only be one winner, with Derby having sat so deep all half, it is extremely difficult to flip a switch and press forwards, having expended so much energy without the ball.
The excellent Raggett and Shaughnessey were still being sent forward to try and get on the end of the skippers long throws as the game reached the dying embers.
Still searching for a winner when we had come from behind twice, getting back into a position to take a share of the spoils to keep the chasing pack at arms length, shows the character and brave approach the manager asks for. Whilst being a fan, it was not the most comfortable viewing, you can’t help but admire this team for having the hunger to go out and win every game, even given the circumstance and magnitude of the fixture.
For too many seasons now, Pompey had come into the Easter weekend fixtures with little to play for. It is a wonderful feeling for the club to be back involved in big games with big atmospheres and plenty of jeopardy. Should Mousinho’s men follow up the Tuesday evening's precious point with three more at home to The Shrews, the championship will be within touching distance.
