Second-half goals from John Marquis and Marcus Harness saw Portsmouth move to the top of the table after beating Crewe Alexandra at Fratton Park yesterday.
Manager David Artell made 4 changes from Tuesday’s 1-0 win at Hartlepool United in the Carabao Cup with Donervon Daniels and Rio Adebisi returning into the back 4, Luke Murphy came into midfield while Mika Mandron started up front. Callum McFadzean, Chris Long and Chris Porter would all drop down to the bench, alongside new signing Terell Thomas, while Billy Sass-Davies would serve a 1-match suspension following his red card in midweek.
The opening chance of the game came in the 7th minute with Pompey wideman Ronan Curtis dragging an effort wide of Will Jaaskelainen’s goal before the Finnish number one would deny Harness with a fantastic save with the first Alex chance coming just before the break with Mandron heading over from a Luke Murphy cross.
The opening goal of the game came 3 minutes after the break with Marquis firing across from Ryan Tunnicliffe’s through-ball in off the post before the Alex would have their only shot on target 10 minutes after the break with Callum Ainley shooting straight at on-loan Manchester City Gavin Bazunu. The second goal came in the 64th minute with Harness beating Jaaskelainen at his near post following another Tunnicliff through-ball.
Our next couple of games see the Alex head to Oxford United on Tuesday night before returning home to face Accrington Stanley next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
It was a tough game against a team that will be looking to be promoted out of the league again this season. Losing Dale just before the break because of illness really doesn’t help with the squad being short of numbers at the minute (the rumours are that there will be at least one signing coming in this week) but it’s too early to be relegating us already at this stage of the season.
Fratton Park
League 1
14/08/2021 4:00 pm
Attendance: 11470
Referee: Will Finnie
| Portsmouth | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marquis, Harness | |||||||
| Bazunu | Jaaskelainen | ||||||
| Freeman | Ramsay | ||||||
| Raggett | Daniels | ||||||
| Robertson | Offord | ||||||
| Brown | Adebisi | ||||||
| Tunnicliffe | MacDonald | 65 | |||||
| Williams | 74 | Murphy | |||||
| Harness | Lundstram | ||||||
| Hackett-Fairchild | 79 | Dale | 40 | ||||
| Curtis | Mandron | 87 | |||||
| Marquis | 82 | Ainley | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Bass | Richards | ||||||
| Ahadme | Thomas | ||||||
| Ogilvie | Long | 40 | |||||
| Harrison | Porter | 87 | |||||
| Hirst | 82 | Finney | 65 | ||||
| Morrell | 74 | McFadzean | |||||
| Jacobs | 79 | Johnson | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 15 | Goal attempts | 4 |
| 5 | On Target | 1 |
| 6 | Corners | 3 |
| 10 | Fouls | 9 |
| 0 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 60 | % | 40 |