Players are 'not fatigue-immune robots'

If the Pompey team performed to the standard set by the travelling fans in away ends up and down the land, we'd be top of the league.

Much to the disappointment of the 2,500+ who made the journey to The Hawthorns, it was embarrassment number five to add to a scarily ever-growing list of annihilations on the road this season.

The expectation for many was that John Mousinho would rotate his players, given the unforgiving schedule afforded to us since the start of January.

I doubt many would say they have any issue with rotation. These are human beings playing in the Championship, not fatigue-immune robots.

Where the issue lies, is when rotation is made - in Saturday's case, five swaps from the team that convincingly beat Stoke - Pompey seem to completely throw the game away within the blink of an eye. Two Nico Schmid errors and it's game, set and match to the Baggies.

It's easy to make a case for Mousinho's actions - survival comes first and foremost. Shuffle the squad and manage the fitness of players accordingly for winnable games is entirely plausible.

Rotation is okay. Rotation that means we have to play a right-back on the wing and offer our centre-forward no support… not okay.

The announcement of the incredibly exciting Hayden Matthews will I'm sure be greeted with an immense sigh of relief.

Defensive reinforcements are a necessity with Pompey conceding an average of three goals per game away from home since mid-December.

There's also bubbling discourse within the fanbase regarding the extent to which Pompey's home form can be relied upon.

Some would stress there's 30 points available to Mousinho's side at Fratton Park between now and the end of the season and another 20 points would probably do it.

Given we've taken 19 from an available 21 of late, what's the worry?

Others would then say, what happens if the home form dries up? Where does this side turn to then? Nothing is a given in football and we can all agree the home form of late has been nothing short of remarkable, yet has probably taken many by surprise.

Tomorrow night feels like a real knife-edge game for Mousinho. Beat Millwall, and the weekend will soon be behind us and Pompey move five points clear of the drop zone. We'd then probably only be needing another five wins to consider ourselves all but safe.

Lose, and Saturday's rotation is in vain, having passed up our game in hand on all those around us and remain in a very precarious league position.

It's a dangerous game and one with a magnitude of importance in the context of this season.