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

elmswellblue added 20:12 - Feb 27 Can understand the frustration of losing at home to Pompey after playing some of the best football I have seen for 3 years. But as someone has stated, give Paul Jewell the credit for putting the smiles back on our faces. There were a number of Keane fans who would still back him up until his final days, wake up==== PJ is working towards next season and a centre forward will arrive in the summer. Drinking in the local pubs before games, fans are talking about what we could do to the opposition rather than moan about another miserable 90 minutes. My only moan about PJ is that he should have subbed Scotland for Priskin at half time,enough said........

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bluelady added 20:22 - Feb 27 Elmswellblue, agree on all areas of your post. We also said Scotland needed to go off, Prisken may not bag a lot of goals at the moment but he brings other players into the game. If scotland moved any slower he would be going backwards! Keanish thought leadbitter did ok lats couple of games, and i am not a fan of his!
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village_blue added 21:52 - Feb 27 Totally agree Priskin should have been on for the whole of the second half instead of Scotland.Although not a fan of Leadbitter think that he has picked up his game a little in the last two games but still not up to taking free kicks,corners etc.The one quick free kick he tried he still hit the first defender!
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WREXHAM_BLUE added 22:42 - Feb 27 Well done PJ. The quality of football is improving all the time and yesterday's result was a travesty. If we keep playing like we are however, AND start sticking some of the chances away, we'll all be singing from the rooftops. We're unrecognisable from the team of two months ago (and more!). Still so much negativity on here though which is disappointing. COYB!
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htb added 08:28 - Feb 28 Why does everyone keep banging on about the formation and the need for 4 4 2. Did we create loads of chances or not? So there was nothing wrong with the formation! I agree we need a new striker and PJ had already said this before this match. Unfortunately I don't think Priskin is any better than Scotland in the finishing stakes look at his miss late on when he took one touch too many when clean through.We were never going to make the playoffs and under Jewell we will not get relegated so just come down to PR and enjoy the football we are now playing and don't get too worried about the results until next season

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Upbeat~ added 13:44 - Feb 28 jas0999 completely disagree. He's been here a couple of months and you already expect him to have sorted our striking worries? Firstly, he did attempt to sort them in January but the deal slipped through the net. Secondly, he obviously wanted time and games to see how our current strike force performs. At this stage of the season, signing someone on loan and on big wages is very counteractive, unless of course we then sign that player in the summer. Also we do not have a god-given right to beat any team in this league. Furthermore, Portsmouth had won their last three consecutive games before Saturday - hardly a pushover. Jewell has now got us playing some scintillating stuff, creating numerous chances and there is little more that he could have done in that match. He couldn't after all stick the ball in the back of the net himself and even Nugent has admitted that we perhaps should have been 5-0 up at half time. For those calling for 4-4-2, htb is of course correct. I doubt very much that we would have created any more opportunities playing that formation. It simply wasn't our day; we wasted too many chances and were eventually made to pay for such ineffectual shooting. It reminded me of the Blackpool-Spurs game recently. One thing for sure is that we're going rapidly in the right direction - far quicker in fact than many of us dared to hope. We're playing exciting, attractive football now and are creating chances every match. Yet still many on here aren't satisfied. Some will simply state the results and argue that one win in four is not good enough. However, those people should remember the manner in which we've lost these games, compared to only a couple of months ago against Milwall. At the beginning of the Jewell era a majority of us were thoroughly behind a long, patient building process towards better football. This many thought could take several years; some were even suggesting five years until we became a real force in this league. As it stands Jewell has made remarkable progress since coming here, to the point that we are realistically looking at next season for a playoffs push. Yet some of our fans are still not happy with the progress we've made, even though they were probably praying for nothing more than championship survival in January. Can't please evryone I guess. COYB

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Keaneish added 23:04 - Feb 28 RE: Leadbitter. If we play 4-4-2 who's going to miss out? Norris or Bullard? Think it's Leadbitter for me. Its about time he had pressure on his place. He's had it fairly easy for the last couple of years. Yeah he's done well the last couple of games but Bullard and Norris get the nod for me if we play 4 across the middle.
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