OPINION: The current climate won't tolerate another poor league start from Portsmouth

But it didn’t stop chief executive Mark Catlin turning his thoughts to the 2020-21 season and ramming home an important message.

No new league kick-off date had been set, no plans for a Blues training return had been pencilled in, players’ futures had yet to be decided – well, officially at least – while talk of salary caps and squad restrictions appeared to be hearsay.

Yet, with the pain of that Kassam Stadium penalty shootout defeat still aching inside, the Blues chief insisted: we can’t afford another play-off hangover next season.

Clearly, the wounds emanating from a poor start to the 2019-20 campaign were yet to heal.

A semi-final exit at the hands of Sunderland on that occasion, along with the subsequent prolonged feeling of disappointment, remained fresh in the memory. Irrespective of the passing of 14 long months.

When Pompey went 2-0 down inside 10 minutes of their season-opener at Stevenage on Saturday, August 29, a feeling of deja vu must have been bubbling up inside Catlin and the Blues board.

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Had the team not learned the lessons of the season before? Was there a lingering smell of a Kassam Stadium hangover?

I, for one, immediately wondered if those fans slating manager Kenny Jackett all summer would finally get their way?

Thankfully, though, the Blues turned the situation around, albeit on penalties, to ensure day one of season 2020-21 had a ‘W’ attached. Even though it is accompanied by an asterix!

Disaster was averted.

But the growing discontent around the Jackett’s managerial’s position and the style of football on offer, the need to avoid a repeat of last term’s start, and the expectation levels in and around Fratton Park means every result and every performance falls under the microscope.

In fairness, such pressure and a constant dissection of what’s put in front of us each match day comes with the territory. This is Pompey, after all.

But on the eve of tomorrow’s league opener against Shrewsbury, this season feels different. Despite the impact of coronavirus, the heat has intensified as the club embarks upon a fourth season of third-tier football – a level all of us are losing patience with.

There can be no repeat of last term’s one win from seven opening league fixtures, no occupying of 20th place in the table while our rivals kick-start promotion pushes and race ahead, no sloppiness on the pitch, no searching for form or rhythm, no searching for a hangover cure.

The current climate won’t welcome it, even if there’s no fans in the stands to voice their opinions.

The Blues did well to rectify the predicament they found themselves last season by producing record-breaking winning runs and making Fratton a fortess, with their last defeat on home soil coming against Peterborough in May 2019.

But they were still counting the cost of a below-par start to proceedings when the season was brought to a halt and promotion places were being decided through mathematical equations rather than 22 grown men kicking a ball around a pitch.

We’re constantly being told this current crop of players isn’t as good as last season.

We’re weaker on paper following the departures of Burgess, Seddon, McGeehan, Pitman and McCrorie.

And with recruitment at a minimum so far this transfer window, despite the recent additions of full-backs Cameron Pring and Callum Johnson, that doesn’t bode well, especially at a time when frustrations are warring thing.

However, the narrative emerging from those in and around the first team counters such arguments.

Continuity can be beneficial, with the majority of last season’s team in tact.

Meanwhile, a smaller, close-knit group is a happier, positive one – and that can be transferred into performances on the pitch.

Whatever viewpoint you take, though, there’s no getting away from the fact that Pompey can ill-afford a poor start to the League One season.

There's too many factors at play to allow it.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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