Portsmouth manager search: Should short-term fix now be the priority as beaten Blues face League One survival battle?

That’s my overriding concern after Saturday’s dire defeat at the hands of Bolton.

Not that one loss changes the desperate need to appoint a successor to Danny Cowley or will put anyone interested in the role from continuing in the now two-week process off.

Instead, does the fact that Pompey now find themselves closer to a relegation battle than a play-off challenge shift the goalposts in terms of the ideal candidate?

Is an up-and-coming coach with little or no experience of management or a club the size of the Blues really what’s needed for the here or now?

Would it not be better to concentrate on the immediate obstacle currently confronting a Pompey side devoid of any confidence and form and appoint an experienced, proven individual who can provide the quick fix that’s so desperately needed?

When Cowley was sacked late on January 2, there was a belief then that the season’s aim – the play-offs – was still obtainable.

Yes, Saturday’s Bolton game represented the first League One fixture since the axe fell on the former Lincoln and Huddersfield boss.

However, the nature of the defeat – the third in all competitions under interim boss Simon Bassey – the Blues’ lack of goals and creativity, the self-doubt that now infests the squad, a record of one win in 15 league games, and a first-team environment that all of a sudden looks like it lacks options and leadership means it’s a very different picture from when the search for a new head coach began.

It’s a job that currently seems exponentially more difficult.

The existing Pompey footballing model has steered the search for Cowley’s replacement down the route of the likes of Liam Manning, Luke Williams, Anthony Barry, Ian Foster & Co.

All highly-respected coaches in the English game and all, no doubt, capable of fitting into the structure in place at Fratton Park and the direction of travel the club is on. Although, some are already out of the running for one reason or another.

Yet, would these so-called potential candidates really have the necessary impact that’s needed now to change the club’s immediate footballing fortunes?

Let’s be honest, the current circumstances at Fratton Park are miles off the terrain that greeted the untested Kieran McKenna and Steven Schumacher when they were appointed at Ipswich and Plymouth respectively last season.

Would a short-term fix, an experienced head until the end of the season, not be a better approach at this particular time for Pompey?

Surely, that would give the ideal man for the job in the long-term better foundations on which to build in the summer, when there’s a completely clean slate in front of him.

As fans, selecting a new manager in such circumstances always appears easy. Pick the best man for the job and get on with it!

Yet, I, for one, don’t envy the task currently facing chief executive Andy Cullen and sporting director Richard Hughes – particularly after defeat at the University of Bolton Stadium heightened anxiety levels, lessened trust in the now prolonged appointment process and zapped the players of any remaining confidence they had.

The goalposts have shifted too much for them to be ignored. And if the reset button needs pressing on the search, then do it, for all our sakes!

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