'Ruthless. Bring a £2.5m player on...' - Expert gives honest verdict on Pompey's Blackburn Rovers defeat
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Pompey lost 3-0 at Ewood Park in midweek with all goals coming in the second-half. Substitute Makhtar Gueye opened the scoring five minutes after being brought off the bench. Callum Brittain and Andreas Weimann were also on target to inflict further damage, worsening Pompey’s goal difference.
Blackburn with the win moved in to the top six with the victory whilst Pompey dropped to second from bottom. Pompey have now lost their last five matches on the road, and Whittingham, who played and managed the club, thinks that they should be aiming for points against the teams around them.
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Hide Ad‘We’ve got to be realistic about this,’ said Whittingham on BBC Radio Solent.
‘You’re going away to Blackburn who are pushing for the play-offs. I know they’re ten points off that third position. They’re a good side in this league. It’s not like you’re coming away from Swansea’s or QPRs and you’ve been beaten 3-0. Blackburn are a good side.
‘It was the ruthlessness of their finishing. The header is a killer. Second-half, you’ve started well, you’ve put pressure on them, and there’s a penalty shout. They go down the other end and that’s why players like that are bought for £2.5m because they make the difference.
‘The more important games away are the teams that are down with you. It’s the area Portsmouth need to improve in terms of playing teams away. It’s the area we have to make it difficult for teams and win those games. You look at Oxford away coming up, Coventry and Luton away. Those are the away games that you have to look to win.’
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A controversial moment in the match was when Pompey were denied a penalty. Goalkeeper Aynsley Pears came rushing out of gopal, clattering Callum Lang, but the ball fell to Bishop whose header was cleared off the line. It appears that Bishop, who was vying for the header, was being handled by Dominic Hyam as he tried to position himself to get his effort on target.
Moments after nearly levelling things, and having a claim for a penalty, Pompey fell a further goal behind as Blackburn broke on the counter attack. John Mousinho was left infuriated by the decision, believing it cost his side the game.
‘To a certain degree you do hope they give you some decisions sometimes,” Whittingham added.
‘It seems to have gone against us again. It did at Watford, this time a penalty shout for us. It looked from up here when we saw a replay we could just about make out it looks like he was pushed. The referee doesn’t give it and the assistant doesn’t help.
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Hide Ad‘You can also look at the chance Portsmouth had in the first half with Bishop, he doesn’t put that away. How clinical and ruthless Blackburn are in the second half.
‘You ask your players to put in all the effort and you trust decisions will be made. It seems cruel when it happens. There are games when it is the other way round and we don’t go on about it.’
In the first-half, Pompey had the opportunity to break the deadlock. The ball was headed across goal by Paddy Lane and Bishop was found from just a couple of yards out, but his shot cannoned off of the crossbar.
He added: ‘It’s what teams can do that have got some money in the Championship. They bring a £2.5m player on. They crossed deep to the far post and he’s in an area where he’s almost outside the six-yard box. He plants a header to the feet of Schmid and he can’t keep it out.
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Hide Ad‘It’s ruthless. It’s the quality that you need in this league. Was it as good as a chance as Bishop’s? I’d say it was more difficult, but they take it.
‘Don’t get me wrong, the Blackburn defenders if they’re in your team, you’re loving them because they’re making it so difficult for Bishop. Even that one there, they’re close to him. There is contact, whereas Gueye he’s peeled off to the far post. I think it was Pack or Swanson who were underneath him, but not enough pressure was put on him.’
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