Portsmouth started the 2019/20 season slowly and had to build up to a top-six spot, something currently being reflected in this season’s early endeavours.
After a 0-0 draw with Shrewsbury Town on the opening Saturday of the season, they were once again held to a dour stalemate, this time away at Rochdale, who many tips for the drop.
The result means both sides still await their first wins of the season, but it could have been even worse for Pompey. Ollie Rathbone was just wide with a volley for the hosts early on, before Matt Done’s shot was cleared off the line late on. Indeed, Rochdale had by far the best of the chances, with Stephen Dooley forcing a good save from Craig MacGillivray too.
The result leaves Portsmouth 17th in the table, albeit with just two games of the season gone. they were beaten 4-0 by Brighton in the League Cup last week too, and have now not scored a goal in 322 minutes of football, plus injury time across four matches.
The poor start has prompted £1m striker John Marquis to issue an apology of sorts on Twitter. He claimed to be disappointed with the results, even though two clean sheets were positive. He also mentioned that if the team keeps creating chances for him, he will eventually begin to put them away.
Portsmouth supporters are already unhappy at what they perceive to be a lack of progress from Jackett’s side, and plenty have flocked to Twitter to issue their verdicts on Marquis’ comments. In fairness to the former Doncaster hitman, he seems to have struck a chord with supporters for having the honesty to come out and make a statement, as you’ll see below.
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Fair play for the statement but this result wasn’t on you John. The dinosaur in charge doesn’t have a clue how to get the best out of you or this team. We’ll thrive once he’s gone
— Will (@WillHughes_) September 21, 2020
Fair play to you for coming out with this but this isn’t on you.
Once the management changes I suspect we’ll see a completely different side from the majority of our players given an opportunity to play some actual football
— Pompey Pedro (@PompeyPedro) September 21, 2020
Not johns fault at all. Playing under Kenny must be bloody hard work. How can he go from smashing it at Doncaster to standing mostly on the halfway line for us cause there is such a lack of service.
— Dean Probert (@deanprobert89) September 21, 2020
Fair play for this statement, John but you’ve nothing to apologise for. Any striker worth their weight in gold still has bad games or misses oppotunities. With your work ethic anybody can see that you care…
— Ben (@RW4689) September 21, 2020
Mate don't worry too much about the missed chances, it's early in the season, and it's finally looking like the ball will be played into you on the ground. We know how good you are, keep your chin up and keep going. Scoring 60 odd goals in 3 season isn't luck
— Andy Ricketts (@FinlayJohn93) September 21, 2020
Thanks for this John – I can feel the team are definitely missing the support of the crowd and the Blue Army behind them – wishing you and the team all the best from Hong Kong – will be back in the stands whenever I am over after Christmas ?????
— Keith Hotten ?? ??? (@KeithHotten) September 21, 2020
Amazing, our main striker comes out and apologies for missing 2 easy chances ( which happens) that would of given us the win and most fans say its not his fault. Why is it not the players fault ?
Fair play to him coming out with this, its nice to see him take responsibility ?— Stephen Bowles (@StephenBowles62) September 21, 2020
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