Boss Paul Jewell felt that if the Blues’ game against Portsmouth had been a boxing match the referee would have stopped it at half-time. Town dominated the first half but failed to take their chances and Pompey grabbed the three points in the second half via goals from David Nugent and David Cotterill.

Jewell said: “If it was a boxing match they’d have called it off at half-time. That’s why this game drives you crazy because it’s all about sticking the ball in the net.

“Today, more than any other game that I’ve been here, we created lots of opportunities. We’ve had good situations before, but the opportunities we created were really good today.

“When you go in 0-0 at half-time when you should be three or four up - and even at the start of the second half we should have gone 1-0 up - you start to wonder whether it’s going to be your day. And the manner of the goals we conceded was doubly disappointing.”

The Town manager thought there were similarities with Tuesday’s loss at Loftus Road: “It was like the QPR game because I felt we were on top, but at QPR we had a lot of opportunities to make chances but today we made actual chances, and not just half-chances, gilt-edged chances.

“You can blame luck, you can blame whatever you want, but you’ve got to make your own luck over the season.”

Despite the defeat, Jewell was delighted with the quality his side showed: “Every credit to the players, some of the football we played will be as good as anyone has played this season.

“Some of the stuff we’ve played in the last three games over the last week gives me great heart for the future, but I know that we’ve got to improve and become mentally tougher. The worst result we should have got today was a 0-0.

“The way we cut them open at times was a joy to watch and we were thinking that if we got one it could be any score. But in any game, if you don’t take your chances, if you’ve got someone on the ropes and they swing a wild left hook and it knocks you out, you lose the fight.”

Overall, the Blues boss believes his side are moving in the right direction: “I feel we’re making progress, but we’ve still got a fair way to go before we’re where we want to be.”

Portsmouth manager Steve Cotterill was delighted that his side battled to victory: “It was a tough game, we had to hang in there in the first half, they were red hot in the first half and we were pleased to get to half-time at 0-0.

“In the second half I thought we were better and we had more of a cutting edge and that probably proved to be the difference in the game in the end.

“Our finishing was really good. The two goals we scored today were excellent today. David Nugent, or David Nuisance, is a really good lad. Sometimes he thinks he can’t play on that left, but he’s very, very effective off that left flank.

“I think if you look at it he’s scored more goals coming in off that left than he has playing as a centre-forward.

“It was a good, solid team performance today, I thought they absolutely ran their socks off on a tough day with the pitch getting quite heavy towards the end and difficult for both sets of players.”

Photo: Action Images

Karlosfandangal added 08:23 - Feb 27 Again I have to say we are playing so much better now but it could all be for nothing as we have 20 players out of contract and Wickham look like he will be gone in the summer plus Bullard will go back as we cant afford him. Jewell will be doing a big team build in the summer and I feel it will take 2 years for us to go up at least. The team relegated from the prem get 80 million over 4 years. It will get harder and harder. To be fair to Jewell he did try to bring in a striker and a right back but was unable to, he may not be able to bring the player in that we need in the summer as well and as I said above 20 are also out of contract. Jewell has done a great job so far and I feel will continue to do so and he has got me back to Portman road for the first time in 18 months (even though we lost I enjoyed the game), really cant see us doing more than flirtting with the play offs next year.

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dirtyboy added 08:25 - Feb 27 Scotland had a thankless task up front, but I do feel he's lacking in a bit of 'bite' at times, but maybe it's the mentality of someone who knows he's doing a difficult job for the team. I still think we're improving, and that for me is a major factor. Remember, PJ is still working with another manager's players and doing a decent enough job. Bullard is class, everything he does he makes look easy, I can't see us having him at PR next season, but we can hope. Martin again was excellent, however, i'd have liked to see him cut inside against Herman, who coped better when he went down the line. Still plenty of positives. Drury looks okay, I think we'll continue to see him improve, good ball by Civelli for the chance late on too. Just a shame we're not putting the ball in the net, see you all Tuesday. Oh, and well done Damien for battling on! lol!

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bluelady added 08:58 - Feb 27 Tuesday dirtyboy? Am I missing a party!!?
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jas0999 added 09:45 - Feb 27 Bottom line is we LOST two nil at home to a team below us in the league. Same old story - we can dress it up as much as we like - we miss a host of chances, gift the opposition goals and only play for part of the game. Nothing in this game for good play. Jewell has to do better - because other that the Doncaster result, we have only won one of our last five. We need a striker.

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scooterblue added 09:50 - Feb 27 as commented earlier we need a nugent type forward, well why don't we go for the real thing. We should be able to get him for around £1m in the summer given pompey's money problem's. Our main problem is that apart from Ronan Murray all our other forward's are 6 footer's/target men type player's.
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bluelady added 10:08 - Feb 27 Jas he has done better the performance was outstanding first half he has inherited a team devoid of a decent striker which I'm sure he will sort in the summer, he has however got players like Martin playing out of their skin, short of sticking it in the back of the net for them not sure what you expect the gut to do?
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NSL added 10:37 - Feb 27 Probably the best passing game i'd seen town play in years. Wickham has really grown in to the left side position, his first time touch and the way he switched the ball over to Martin was phenominal at times. The striker issue really needs addressing. Scotland is a total waste of space. Yes, he had one or two good seasons in the Championship but that was years ago. He has now lost his pace and touch = disaster. Unfortunately we are short of options. Priskin is just as inneffective 15 games - 0 goals, shocking. Putting Wickham up there will leave a gap on the left and it's going to take Civelli 3/4 months until he adjusts to the pace, if ever. So there we are, I think the fans just have to get behing what we have in front of us. I am confident Evans will put his hands in his pockets during the summer or Jewell simply wouldn't be here.

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bluelady added 10:53 - Feb 27 Guy not gut !!!!
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nickforeveritfc added 11:03 - Feb 27 I thought we played superb yesterday!! The only thing PJ can say is we didnt put home our great chances, thats all, apart from that we made portsmouth look like a league one side!! :) player of the match edwards :)
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dirtydingusmagee added 11:28 - Feb 27 Basil Smallbrain,or is Allbran ,stick to your boxing you obviously know more about that .P J has got a team playing where RK failed, he also recognises we need a real striker, yes the results last couple of games have been huge dissapointment ,but dont say PJ hasnt imroved anything.HE HAS .
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bluelady added 12:52 - Feb 27 Guy not gut !!!!
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SouperJim added 13:04 - Feb 27 Utterly disgusted at the criticism being levelled at Fulop. Why do certain fans always need a scapegoat? Yes he has made a couple of errors recently, but name a goalkeeper in the history of this club that didn't have the odd wobbly spell, even the best ones. Forrest, Wright, Alexander, Davis... they all had their off days. Some of these dimlows are even suggesting Lee-Barrett should take his place, I've got nothing against ALB, but come on, he is a league one standard player on a good day. A goalkeeper might be called into action 20 or 30 times in a game and he only has to get it wrong once. Our strikers on the other hand had chance after chance yesterday and only need to score once. Most of the time they didn't even get the ball on target. If you want someone to blame for the result, you need to start looking at the other end of the pitch.

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howthecow added 13:11 - Feb 27 The honeymoon period is now over and it's back to reality. 1 point from 9 and worse still 1 goal in 270 minutes is proof, if ever proof was needed, that Town simply cannot sustain any decent form for any considerable amount of time. And we all know why that is: we don't have an out-and-out goalscorer. This remains our biggest concern, and I can see the only solution to our problems coming from the sale of Wickham. As much as it pains me, I just don't see Evans investing a great deal more of his cash in the club while we remain in the Championship, whereas the sale of our wunderkind will probably release a good 5 or 6 mil for Jewell to play with. And I trust big fat Paul to buy well. But don't think that just because Ipswich are playing a more "entertaining" style of football, that we are a far greater outfit than we were under Keane. The team that played yesterday was assembled by Keane and fundamentally the same problem with the team still exists (lack of goals). And lack of goals = lack of wins. People forget all to easily that under Keane we used to have countless shots on goal, the problem was we didn't put enough of those chances away. I enjoyed the first half yesterday, but I didn't enjoy the second half - you could sense the niggling lack of belief start to return to the team. The frustration at watching gilt-edged chance after gild-edged chance yield no reward. Paul Jewell has found it easy to be chirpy since he's been here, but if the poor form continues he will soon run out reasons to be cheerful, as will the rest of us. It's goals that are needed and goals don't come cheap. Thankfully Wickham won't come cheap either.

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stinkiusminkius added 13:19 - Feb 27 Jas0999 - are you yearning to have your precious Roy back? You found positives for Keane and supported him virtually up to the bitter end, despite him being the worst manager we've ever had. But you don't seem to have the same patience and support for Mr Jewell. He's clearly moving us in the right direction, and actually entertaining us, to boot. Come on, cheer up, son.

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Keaneish added 13:35 - Feb 27 Has anyone noticed the difference in the amount of posts on this forum since Keane left? When we were being humiliated and playing abysmally there would be a post match reaction of between 100 and 200 posts. Now we're playing some exciting football we struggle for 50! What does that say about many Town fans!?
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bluelady added 14:00 - Feb 27 Keanish that's why our terraces are so quiet!!
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jas0999 added 14:13 - Feb 27 bluelady -I expect us to beat Pompey at home! PJ has been here long enough now and in my opinion should have sorted the striker situation. This is a result based business. I know you are a PJ fan and that's great - I respect your opinion. Mine is that one win in five is not very good. one point out of last nine is also very poor. The results don't lie. Performance wise it's been better - but generally only for part of the game.

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Garv added 14:23 - Feb 27 Have to agree with stinki...jas you are the best example of a hypocrite I can think of right now!
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Lightningboy added 14:44 - Feb 27 Wasn't at the game but sounds like we're playing some cracking stuff...we just need to keep up the same workrate "every" game and the rest will soon fall into place,especially when PJ manages to bring in someone who can stick the ball in the net. Hopefully we'll make up for the 2 blanks on tv next weekend.
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dirtyboy added 15:11 - Feb 27 I still can't believe people expect us to win every game. I've been away for a while, and the atmosphere at PR is nothing like it used to be, thank god it's improving, as at least the passages of play we're seeing give us something to cheer about, something that was absent under Keane. Again, remember this team bar two players was assembled under Keane, and PJ had one job to do, and that's save us from relegation, which, I am now confident of (wasn't so sure under Keane i'm affraid). He will try and address the striker issue (he did try, don't forget Austin) not everything can go your way in this business, but for now, we ARE seeing improvements, and I truly believe we will continue to build, this is not an easy league, home or away, apart from the odd team here and there (and let's not forget the investment some teams above us have had too) anyone can beat anyone. We've been unlucky ourselves to hit QPR, Hull and Portsmouth on their purple patches. Take a step back, have a think about what's going on, and look forward, history is exactly that.

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Ipswich24 added 15:21 - Feb 27 Read a lot of comments on here and everyone says we should been five nil up and jewell says it would have been stopped if were boxing match. But it is not a boxing match is it or anything else. Football is a game all about scoring more goals than the opposition. For me Scotland is useless fat, slow and lazy not good combination for a lone striker. I was calling out for Priskin to come on well b4 he actually did. Dont get me wrong I am delighted we are playing proper football again but we need two up front at home. I would go for Mackail Smith or why not Delfonso from villa on loan?

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bluelady added 16:00 - Feb 27 Jas whilst I respect your opinion you slated others for not giving keane time after a season and a half yet you won't give jewell six weeks? He will get striker but they don't grow on trees and January is not the best time as you are always held to ransom plus he had only just arrived, same situation this time next year I will join you in moaning but I will at least give the guy a chance to build his own team!! For me watching his style of play puts a smile ony face unlike keanes hoof ball, of course I want to win and that will come.

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dirtydingusmagee added 16:34 - Feb 27 You are right Keanish,i was thinking the same thing the other day .
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StochesStotasBlewe added 16:35 - Feb 27 Good comments blue lady. Mr Jewell,s style of football is a breath of fresh air & i,m sure he will identify a 20 plus goals a year striker to compliment our style of play & get him.
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Keaneish added 19:41 - Feb 27 I think it comes down to a straight toss up really between the extra 1 in midfield (lets face it...Leadbitter) or playing 2 up front. Who's better in their respective position at the moment: Scotland/Priskin or Leadbitter? It's a tough one, none of them are hitting the mark. Leadbitter needs to step up to the plate to keep his place. Priskin needs to do one of a million things consistently week in week out and Scotland, well, in my opinion he's pretty much done. So where does that leave us? Playing a 4-4-2 with an incompatible inconsistent pairing or relying on on youth or a blend of with Wickham and Murray. Lets be honest, all of these options are inadequate right now. Leadbitter...you're a lucky man in my opinion. That'll change this summer though so show us something new between now and May!

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