Portsmouth 0 Derby 0: Neil Allen's verdict - Unbeatable yet cannot win, more Fratton frustrations for Blues

A deserved point against promotion rivals Derby has its advantages, maintaining the Blues’ narrow advantage over them in the League One table.

Nonetheless, it represented a fifth successive league draw at home for Danny Cowley’s men during an ongoing frustrating period.

It took until Jay Mingi’s stoppage-time strike for Pompey to muster their first on-target effort against the Rams.

Not that it was a lacklustre display from the hosts, far from it, maintaining a good tempo, with Owen Dale in good form and comfortably their best player.

However, they continue to struggle to carve out sufficient goal-scoring opportunities for leading scorer Colby Bishop, while Josh Koroma simply cannot muster up any sort of form.

Indeed, the returning Ronan Curtis injected more energy and menace from the bench after replacing the Huddersfield loanee in the 61st minute.

Derby had the game’s best chance on the stroke of half-time when Craig Forsyth somehow contrived to miss at the far post following Josh Griffiths’ mistake.

But otherwise they too didn’t do enough to win a hard-fought encounter played in a good atmosphere under the Fratton Park lights.

Certainly Cowley will be taking the positives from an unbeaten home run in all competitions spanning 21 games since defeat to Charlton on January 31.

However, it’s another draw, with the bulk of the 18,623 crowd, of which 1,270 were away fans, not witnessing a Fratton league win since September 3 against Peterborough.

Unbeaten, but still concerns elsewhere, as the Blues slip further away from the leading promotion pack - yet remaining in the play-off spots.

Zak Swanson and Clark Robertson had given Pompey a double fitness ahead of Derby’s visit.

Swanson (knee) and Robertson (Achilles) were forced off during last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Morecambe.

However, both recovered sufficiently to keep their places in a Pompey starting XI featuring one change.

That consisted of Ryan Tunnicliffe dropping to the bench, replaced in the centre of midfield by Jay Mingi for his fourth league start of the campaign.

There was also the welcome return of Ronan Curtis among the substitutes, back having missed Morecambe with ankle damage collected at Hereford.

Regardless, Pompey were without Joe Morrell on World Cup duty, while Michael Jacobs, Louis Thompson, Jayden Reid, Joe Rafferty and Tom Lowery are still sidelined by injury.

When the match got underway, Owen Dale superbly delivered a first-time ball while on the run towards the far post inside the fourth minute.

That was headed down by Connor Ogilvie, before cleared by Max Bird, with Josh Koroma’s first-time half-volley flying high into the Milton End.

Derby responded with Conor Hourihane clipping a sublime lofted pass into the box with Robertson out of position, but the head of James Collins couldn’t quite make contact.

Robertson then collected the game’s first booking on 12 minutes after a slide challenge on David McGoldrick, deep into Derby territory.

Seconds later, McGoldrick swivelled and let fly with a right-footed shot which bounced off the top of the Blues’ crossbar, albeit with Griffiths looking comfortable.

On 23 minutes, Mingi was brought down on the edge of the area by Collins and he burst onto the ball and shaped to shoot.

The resulting free-kick was taken by Scarlett, whose shot was low and straight into the wall, allowing the visitors to clear without too much trouble.

Meanwhile, Dale, who was having a lively opening to the match, beat Louie Sibley down the right and clipped a cross to the far post which Ogilvie headed narrowly over.

On the half-hour mark, a magnificent deep crossfield pass from Robertson found Dale down the right, who controlled the ball on the run superbly.

The Blackpool loanee then delivered a dangerous low cross which Joe Wildsmith pushed out, only for the loose ball to agonisingly fall behind Bishop and nowhere near another Pompey player.

The Blues were buzzing and when Bishop chested Swanson’s low cross from the right into the path of Scarlett, the Spurs man sent a left-footed shot over the bar.

With half-time approaching, Ogilvie was pulled up for a foul and, from the right, Hourihane’s free-kick was missed by Griffiths in an aerial challenge.

The ball found its way to Criag Forsyth at the far post, who somehow could only divert it wide from close range when really he should have broken the deadlock.

There were no substitutions at the break, although with Sibley on a yellow card and struggling badly against Dale, there was a sense he could be exploited.

On 53 minutes, Koroma cut in from the left and fired a dipping right-footed shot which appeared to be heading out, only for Dale to improbably get on the end of it at the far post.

The winger headed it back across goal and it was put out by Derby for a corner which was delivered by Robertson and met with a first-time flicked shot by Bishop which flew over.

Derby will feel aggrieved that they didn’t win a penalty when Liam Thompson’s shot was blocked by the flying Mingi, with replays showing it struck the midfielder’s hand.

From the resulting corner, Sibley’s angled shot was blocked and then Scarlett cleared off the line, before Pack tidied up by heading it over.

Cowley made his first substitution on 61 minutes with Curtis replacing the ineffective Koroma on the left flank.

Derby made a triple substitution on 77 minutes, with Tom Barkhuizen, Lewis Dobbin and Richard Stearman coming on for Collins, Thompson and Jake Rooney.

Still the sides couldn’t be separated and when six minutes of time added-on were indicated, the match was still anyones.

There was a glimpse for the Blues when Curtis fed substitute Joe Pigott, who laid into the path of Mingi, but the midfielder’s shot from outside the box was straight at Wildsmith.

That proved to be Pompey’s first – and last shot on target – as the match finished goalless between the promotion hopefuls.