City lose to Portsmouth

Exeter in lacklustre display

City fail to claim three points once again - this time not even getting one.

Before the game City fans showed their class during a minutes clapping for ex-Portsmouth player Anton Walkes, who died at 25 in a boating accident. The away end joined in with the fans in blue, even displaying a 'We Are Family' banner throughout.

An overall disinteresting game - albeit a pick up in the second half. Two goals from sloppy defending which Portsmouth capitalised on, accompanied with missed chances and dodgy penalty decisions resulted in a disappointing game for Exeter coach Gary Caldwell, who has now only won 4 games in his 14 game tenure so far.

A first half of two halves really - Pompey dominated the opening 20, seeming much stronger and more up for it, but City quickly grew into it and looked the better side for the majority of the opening 45. A penalty shout came straight away in the 2nd minute, but the referee waved it off, not for the last time in this match. 

The best chance of the half came for Portsmouth against the run of play - close play from Connor Ogilive and Michael Jacobs led to a beautiful cross in, which eventual man of the match Owen Dale could only header wide. Multiple Sam Nombe long shots were brilliantly saved by new Pompey keeper Toby Steward - without him the game would've been a different story - and loanee Joe White had a great chance over the bar. Overall, not much happened.

Portsmouth fans seemed much quieter than their reputation tells - as City fans picked up on, quote 'playing football in a library'. Many are unhappy with their owner Michael Eisner. This was made extremely obvious when a plane flew overhead with a banner saying 'Eisner, no ambition, no plan'. For a previous Premier League and FA Cup winning club now sitting dangerously close to League 2, you can understand their frustration. 

Another point of annoyance is the appointment of new manager John Mousinho, who two days ago was a CB / part-time coach for Oxford, and has no experience of managing whatsoever. A strange choice which mystifies Pompey fans.

The second half started much more lively - a Pompey free-kick and another Exeter penalty shout right off the bat. The best chance of the whole game came in the 51st minute, a clearance from a corner fell to Nombe, who put Jevani Brown through one-on-one, but the keeper plunged on him when he took a heavy touch.

Then Pompey struck. A corner in, headered out and Marlon Pack was allowed to just watch in come down and strike it cleanly into the bottom corner. Very poor defending and lack of pressing from a largely solid City defence - but a great finish nonetheless.

Fratton Park became a bit louder from then on.

Portsmouth then improved massively, and City became more and more lacklustre. A poor pass in the midfield was picked up by Ryan Tunnicliffe and played to Dale, who played a curling outside the boot through ball into Ronan Curtis, who played it across for Joe Morrell, who spooned it wide. Two minutes later, the exact same, except this time Morrell scuffed it in. A finishing blow for Exeter.

The game ended 2-0 to Portsmouth, with Exeter dropping down to 12th.