Southend 3 Portsmouth 3: Jordan Cross’ match report

Alan Knight shuddered at the memories of seemingly unassailable leads being surrendered, victories which shockingly turned into draws. Defining moments in seasons which ended in agony by the finest of margins.

The four-goal half-time lead surrendered against Fulham in the Fratton gales in 1985. The 5-2 advantage against Oxford which was swallowed up in a desperate final 13 minutes in the 1992-93 campaign.

These were the infamous capitulations which proved so damaging to promotion bids which came up short by the narrowest of goal-difference margins. And in the aftermath of this Roots Hall collapse the comparisons were an easy and obvious one to make.

Okay, the submission to Southend wasn’t quite as dramatic, but, in the final reckoning will this be the afternoon we look back on angrily and rue with a shake of the head?

A three-goal lead established in a rampant first 31 minutes and then sacrificed, as an opponent bereft of confidence after just one win in seven were invited on to Pompey and offered the chance to let their battered belief grow.

The scale of Pompey’s fall on this occasion may not quite assume the level of its bleak bedfellows, but, quite frankly, it feels just as damaging.

And, as much as the two dropped points in front of the Sky cameras and a widened audience contributed to the most forceful of body blows in the bid to reach the Championship, it’s what it does for the belief of supporters which is just as debilitating.

At the moment they can't see their team going remotely close to making a fist of it, as they did in those brave but ultimately failed promotion assaults of yesteryear.

Make no mistake, to them, this was just about as grim as it gets.

The wags who suggested it would be just like their side to fail to take advantage of the gift offered by Accrington’s brave draw at the Stadium of Light on Friday night, had been around long enough to prophetically pre-empt the script.

The word was Jackett’s men were facing a foe who would wilt in the face of a fast start. The doubt came over whether the visitors were capable of producing it in the face of impotent recent form.

A switch to a 4-4-2 formation and trio of changes to the starting XI later, and Pompey emphatically removed those misgivings as they devoured Chris Powell’s side and feasted on the kind of defensive gaffes which would be heckled on pitch six at Farlington Marshes.

First it was Bryn Morris who was the grateful recipient of keeper Nathan Bishop haphazardly pushing Jamal Lowe’s cross into his path. The midfielder accepted the gift by gleefully roofing his finish high into the net.

Then came Shrimpers captain Sam Mantom comedically making a mess at his attempt at a headed clearance. The price was a high one as Close underlined his fast-improving confidence in front of goal, by smacking in his second impressive finish in eight days.

By the time Morris was afforded the freedom of Southend’s penalty area to arrow a 31st minute effort off the post, and the home defence deferred their attempts at clearing until Oli Hawkins had poked home the loose ball, it had turned into the perfect case study of how not to defend.

But we hadn’t banked on Pompey then extending the lesson with their own exhibits on the bleakest of afternoons.

You could’ve imagined the furore if it was his defensive partner who’d got under the flight of Sam Hart’s cross and not Matt Clarke, to allow Simon Cox to resuscitate Southend’s lifeless corpse nine minutes before the break.

But a regrouped visitor would surely be capable of seeing out a result which would breathe new energy into their season, applying a defibrillator to ambitions of promotion.

It appeared so, as pulses slowed after the break only briefly quickening as Omar Bogle danced through the Southend defence seven minutes after the restart. It was trickery which couldn’t be matched by the finish, in a chance which should’ve been accepted.

It was the striker’s current inability to see through games without succumbing to cramp which was to prove central to the late collapse.

After the lively Viv Solomon-Otabor was replaced by the flu-affected Ronan Curtis, it was Bogle’s departure which prompted a reshuffle from Jackett which saw a return to a 4-2-3-1 formation as Gareth Evans was introduced.

It was a switch viewed as an invite for the home side to attack, one they shouldn’t have been afforded.

Those who fumed at Bogle’s exit weren’t aware of the issues with his tightening limbs. If they had you get the feeling they would’ve hoped to see James Vaughan in his place.

That call had nothing, however, to do with Morris’ perplexing decision to lunge in on Michael Kightly in the box with 12 minutes left, as he tried to make amends for a loose touch and failure to clear. The outcome was inevitable, as Cox took the next step towards the fifth hat-tick of his career.

It was that moment which was rued as an intervention of class from Timothee Dieng carved open Pompey’s defence with three minutes left, and an untracked run offered the Southend striker the chance to claim the match ball. He accepted without hesitation.

The reaction from the 1,239  away fans crammed into the North Stand behind Bishop’s goal said it all. Less anger, more stunned silence and knowing resignation. They could see it coming.

Jackett could point with some justification to a legitimate 25th-minute goal from Bogle being chalked off. His belief there was a handball in the box from Anton Walkes’ long throw at the death was less conclusive on TV replays.

The Pompey boss was wise, however, to say such moments shouldn’t be used as smoke and mirrors to distract from his side’s own woeful defensive inadequacies.

Perhaps less considered was Jackett’s decision to open his post-match TV interview with a ‘that’s football’ reaction to a painful result. It was a soundbyte viewed angrily as a darkness descended on supporters and scattergun attacks were launched on social media. Spleens were vented and temperatures soared.

Such reactions are a natural consequence to justifiable fears Pompey’s season is crumbling, as they meekly yielded two-thirds of the spoils to a foe who had 12 players unavailable. The stats now read winless in six in the league and a single success in nine all told.

An assessment of the table in the cold light of day makes for viewing not quite as bad as it feels at the moment.

But that picture must take in the full landscape, and that includes a team in royal blue who look a distance from being capable of delivering promotion.

The man tasked with galvanising this football club and its disciples has repeatedly pointed to what can be achieved if they believe.

He now faces a mighty task to quickly generate that conviction in this defining period. Because at the moment it’s doubt and not hope shrouding this faltering campaign.