Pompey v Bury: The Opposition View

After the number of signings they made in the summer and winning the opening game of the season, the mood was upbeat.

Not a lot of the supporters were buying into talk of making it to the Championship, but things were positive.

Since that opening game, though, things have been pretty dismal.

I don’t think Lee Clark’s style of management went down well with most of the squad.

I’m not sure exactly what was behind it, but Clarke was trying to get out some of the signings made over the summer before deadline day!

I’ve never heard of anything like a manager moving on a signing made a matter of weeks previously.

Adam Thompson is a Northern Ireland international but was sent out on loan to Bradford after joining from Southend, while a couple of others were frozen out of the team.

Chris Maguire is a player Portsmouth fans will know about. He’s been out of the team the past few week and has been a bit hit and miss.

When he’s good he’s really good, though.

Michael Smith has come in and worked hard, but he’s not a goalscorer.

When leading scorer Jermaine Beckford got injured people expected Smith to fill the void, but he’s not as prolific. Having said that, he was playing on his own and having balls knocked at him.

He’s looked better with Nicky Ajose alongside him and new manager Chris Lucketti is placing the gameplan around him.

Clark brought in that many players he almost had too many options, with a squad list up around 40. Rather than persevere with a player he kept changing it.

Lucketti was a popular appointment. He did well as a player at the club. He was appointed after the Shrewsbury win and things have improved from there.

Ryan Lowe was being used as a caretaker manager and was popular with the players, but was viewed as not being quite ready for management.

Lucketti’s had five years as Graham Alexander’s assistant at Fleetwood and then was at Scunthorpe.

He’s done his apprenticeship and is ready now to make the step up to being manager.

The appointment has created some momentum, and having their game called off last weekend would’ve helped.

Bury train at Manchester City’s old training ground which has got good facilities, so the weather hasn’t been a problem of late.