When can Portsmouth fans get excited about genuine dreams of promotion?
- Published
Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho has his side off to a flying start in the 2023-24 season and they are undefeated through nine games
"You don't win promotion in September, no one is getting carried away, it's the table in May that matters".
You can throw out all the clichés around being the early pace setters in a division, although it is reassuring to hear Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho say he does look at the league table and it is great to be top.
His honesty is one of his more underrated attributes as a boss.
However, if there is one fanbase that doesn't need reminding that being top of the league in the autumn doesn't guarantee promotion it's Portsmouth's.
In the six previous seasons in League One Pompey have spent time at the top of the table in four of them. They only made the play-offs on one of those four occasions.
Where did it go wrong and can history repeating itself be avoided this time around?
Some of those seasons are easier to explain than others. In 2021 Pompey took advantage of a kind early fixture list to win the opening three matches, but no one thought that squad was going to win the title.
It was a season of transition and Pompey soon slipped down the table before finishing strongly and ending 10th. About where was expected.
Last season Portsmouth got off to a flying start and were unbeaten after nine games.
Again with the strength of the division and the large budgets at the likes of Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday, automatic promotion was going to be a big ask.
However a top-six finish was a realistic goal. I still find it hard to fathom how Pompey managed just one further league win under Danny Cowley after September.
Injuries to key players was a significant factor and there were other issues behind the scenes but no one inside or outside the club would have predicted the season to fall away like it did.
Portsmouth went into Christmas top of the tree in 2020. However Covid-19 spread through the squad and it would be almost a month before they played another league game.
By mid-March Kenny Jackett had been sacked after his side slipped out of the top six and Cowley's new manager bounce was not quite enough to finish in the play-offs.
'What reasons are there for optimism?'
Former Portsmouth players Bryn Morris (left), Andy Cannon (second left), Omar Bogle (second right) and James Vaughan (right) didn't quite pan out as hoped at Fratton Park
It's the 2018-19 season that will always be viewed as the one that got away.
Pompey weren't just top fleetingly but led the way for most of the autumn and through to the new year. A sticky January and February ultimately saw them agonisingly miss out on automatic promotion.
The lazy narrative about that season is the manager wasn't backed in the January transfer window after Ben Thompson returned to Millwall.
However notable fees were spent on Bryn Morris and Andy Cannon as well as Omar Bogle and James Vaughan arriving on loan. It's perhaps more accurate that the money wasn't spent well in January.
But what about this season? The league table is still in it's fledgling stage and is very congested at the top. What reasons are there for optimism?
League One clearly isn't as strong as the past couple of years, that's a huge help. Also Portsmouth's budget is higher than last season which has enabled a deeper squad to be built. Injuries have already hit Pompey without looking like de-railing the team as yet.
The Blues may have a rookie manager but he's one that hasn't appeared flustered by anything thrown at him as yet. A lot can go wrong over the course of the season. If fortune favours Portsmouth, key players stay fit and in form and they use the January transfer window wisely, there's no reason why things should implode this time around.
And yes those are a lot of caveats but football would be boring if it was that easy to predict.
You can hear every Pompey match live on BBC Radio Solent with Andy Moon and former Blues striker and manager Guy Whittingham.
