Pompey out-Lincoln City.

We’ve seen our team do this to other sides of course, particularly away but last night Portsmouth did the sort of job on Lincoln City that used to be our forte. City didn’t get a pasting, far from it. Pompey got a goal with the last kick of an unfathomable four minutes of injury time. I’m not sure where that came from, ironically probably mainly for Pompey making a meal of everything City did when anywhere near them, then, as the Imps chased the game, they gave away a penalty that even the most ardent fan in red would not take issue with. It gave the score a gloss that wasn’t really there but, to be fair, you could only concede that the best team won.

Did Pompey look any good? I was surprised at their approach, dishing out the sort of treatment that John Beck would approve of. Were our players overawed, bullied even? You could make a case for that.

City aren’t a big side this season, Portsmouth are, big and strong but they move the ball about well. Even so it wasn’t easy on the eye. The problem with a smaller side and the problem with favouring youth is that you have to pass the ball around your opponents. Last night City couldn’t pass a Reliant Robin.

It’s tempting to say oh well, we don’t have to play Pompey every week. Indeed we don’t and I realise were not comparing like with like here, last season we were competing with the ilk of Forest Green Rovers but we are where we are, in league one and every team I see at the moment seem to have a history of much greater things.

All very well, I hear you say. It’s Southend at the weekend, a chance to put things back on track. Indeed it is but play like that and I’m not at all sure we will. Then it’s Rotherham. You know, the team we humbled in their own back yard at the beginning of the season. I was there, it was a great performance, virtually the last good away performance before the rot set in, the managers left, I’m not at all sure the two aren’t connected, and City embarked on a new direction.

I remain convinced, eventually, that direction will once again be upwards but we’ve got to put performances like that to bed and do better. I’m not expecting to win every home game and I’m not saying City should never lose at home but we’ve got to do better than that. The number of fans leaving early, whilst understandable should serve as a reminder that patience only stretches so far. Thankfully I didn’t hear any boos. After the run City have been on at home lately that really would have been too much.