An appalling refereeing performance from Paul Alcock helped scupper Town's chances of notching up another win on Saturday. A late equaliser from James Scowcroft gave Town a point as the game ended 1-1, but it was a frustrating afternoon for Town who found themselves down to 10 men shortly before half-time.
John McGreal was the player to be shown the red card for a foul on Guy Whittingham just outside the area. It seemed obvious to pretty much everyone in the ground that it was a fairly innocuous challenge that Whittingham had made the most of and that there was sufficient defensive cover in the form of Mark Venus for the tackle not to be seen as a professional foul.
However, by this stage we had got used to Mr Alcock's inabilities, for example Mark Venus was booked when he had clearly won the ball.
With Town down to 10 men the second half was always going to be difficult and at half-time George Burley withdrew Fabian Wilnis and Richard Naylor and brought on Mickey Stockwell and Jim Magilton.
Portsmouth took the game to Town and in the 48th minute went ahead through Guy Whittingham. A long ball was pumped into the Town box and Richard Wright and Whittingham went up for it together. Unfortunately for Town fans the Pompey striker got to it fiorst and the ball looped home.
Town were still attacking in patches despite that lack of players and abysmal refereeing and linesmanship. James Scowcroft had a header well saved by Andy Petterson and in the 87th minute Town were rewarded for their afternoon's endeavours when Mickey Stockwell won the ball wide on the right and put a cross in. A mix-up between Andy Petterson, twice on loan at Town, and Adrian Whitbread allowed Scowcroft to tap home from close. The Town fans went wild as this was a point well won when Town could argue they were playing against 13 men.
The abiding memory of Portsmouth 1999 will be the refereeing. Bookings for Claphm, Wilnis, Venus and Johnson were all undeserved with Pompey only having one yellow, to Jason Cundy (presumably the ref still thought he was an Ipswich player).
Wilnis's booking was particularly galling as there was no clear reason for it and Sammy Igoe had clearly stamped on him in front of the referee a few minutes earlier. The linesman made an equal spectacle of himself by not allowing the Town subs to warm up at the side of the pitch (what on earth was he on about?) and some highly dubious decsions which George Burley, Tony Mowbray and David Williams took exception to.
A point gained in extreme circumstances then. Paul Alcock joins Bob Hamer, Kevin Lynch and Paul Durkin ion the ITFC refereeing hall of shame.
R Wright 6 A fault for goal
Wilnis 6 Not one of his best afternoons (Stockwell 46, 7 Set up goal)
Brown 8 Another excellent performance
McGreal 7 Played well up 'til dreadful red card
Venus 7 Did little wrong
Clapham 6 Poor from Jamie
Holland 7 Did OK
Wright 6 Quiet
Scowcroft 7 Striker's goal
Johnson 6 Not up to recent standards (Axeldal 90)
Naylor 6 Nothing special (Magilton 46, 6 Still not match fit)