Four months and counting as Portsmouth's mercurial forward aims to end goal drought

Surely not even the best fortune-tellers in the land would have foreseen Pompey’s most naturally-gifted player suffering such a goal drought.

Yet today marks four months since Marcus Harness scored in League One.

Since netting in a 4-0 win over Northampton on October 27, the winger's gone 20 games without bagging in the third tier.

In fact, the only time he's been on the scoresheet since was in a 6-1 routing of non-league King's Lynn in the FA Cup second round.

The mercurial forward enjoyed an encouraging maiden campaign at Fratton Park following his arrival from Burton in 2019, registering nine goals and seven assists.

However, after starting this season in such barnstorming fashion, it appeared he was going to develop into a talismanic presence.

Harness raced to eight goals in the opening 11 games, with a classy hat-trick at his former club Burton the highlight.

That resulted in Harness garnering comparisons to former fans' favourite Jamal Lowe, with many fearing he'd be the next to be prised away if Pompey again failed to reach the Championship.

What's more, his scintillating performances were rewarded with a first call-up to the Republic of Ireland squad on short notice in November.

However, with next month's international break on the horizon, Harness searches to recapture the sort of sparkle that puts him among the best players in the division when at his pinnacle.

In Tuesday’s 1-0 win at Oxford, the ex-Port Vale loanee was again short of his best and is enduring a tough run of form.

There are some mitigating factors to his sticky patch in front of goal. At the beginning of the campaign, Harness was operating as a second striker where he’d get more goalscoring opportunities.

Since a 2-0 loss to Charlton on October 31, he's almost exclusively featured on the flank where there’s more emphasis on assists.

In addition, all wingers struggle for cast-iron consistency – especially in the lower leagues – and suffer dips at some stage of the season.

Yet if Pompey are to finally remove their League One shackles, they need the 25-year-old back to his zenith and firing on all cylinders.

With 17 games remaining, though, there remains enough time for Harness rejuvenated his performances and catapult himself into the Blues’ promotion hero.