'Genuine belief' Pompey are moving in right direction

Last night was a welcome return to enjoyable nights under the lights at Fratton, a staple of our League One winning season last year.

All of a sudden, a side that looked like they couldn't buy a win at the bottom of the division have become one of the in-form teams in the lower half of the Championship, and pulled themselves out of the relegation zone, albeit by a point before Wednesday night's games.

That is a reflection, not just of the two games in four days at home, but the general direction of travel since Sheffield Wednesday beat Pompey on home turf at the back end of October.

No side has beaten John Mousinho's team at Fratton since then.

Norwich are usually a goalfest, and Pompey have found the back of the net more in recent weeks - so the result comes as somewhat of a surprise.

It was certainly one of the more engaging goalless draws we'll see this season, a game that demanded an awful lot of Pompey defensively, albeit through conceding minimal opportunities from Norwich.

Terry Devlin kept the league's salient top goalscorer under wraps, Tom McIntyre's 45 minutes left him bloodied and bruised, and we saw one of Connor Ogilvie's best displays in a Pompey shirt this season - all three providing noteworthy contributions to a welcome clean sheet.

I'd never usually be the sort to cite a referee for a decision as the onus is always on Pompey to do better - Josh Murphy has somewhat of a case for a penalty in the first half, but the call to disallow Ogilvie's effort for a foul on the keeper is a baffling one.

There wasn't an awful lot of protest from the pitch which is usually pretty telling, but watching it back I still can't see an awful lot in the way of infringement on Angus Gunn - a man who of course got the rudimentary Fratton End welcome for appearing 30 times for a certain side.

More than 1,600 Pompey fans will trek up to Derbyshire on Friday night, and without wanting to diminish the importance of the game, the travelling cohort won't be making the journey with the weight of the Championship world on their shoulders as much as previous away days have often felt like this campaign.

There is a genuine belief among the fanbase that Pompey are one of the few teams in the bottom half moving in the right direction.

When the herd moves in the City of Portsmouth, it moves. There is a long way to go and a lot still to do and work on, but the signs are extremely encouraging.

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