Andy Awford holds on to Portsmouth support after Wycombe shaken by gale
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Version 0 of 1. Portsmouth are popular visitors in League Two – and not just because they have won away only once, in August. The lower they slide the more their away support is appreciated and it was there in numbers at top-of-the table Wycombe Wanderers. Surprisingly, perhaps, the goalless draw satisfied both managers. Pompey had gone eight games without a win anywhere and slumped to 18th, only two points from a relegation place. They remain there but, with four of those below winning, defeat would have dropped them to 21st. They were fortunate that Wycombe, though unbeaten in 10 games, had won only twice in seven, in which they had scored only five goals. Shrewsbury and Burton overtook them at the top with victories. Five seasons ago this fixture would have been inconceivable. Portsmouth were in the Premier League, having played in Europe the previous year as FA Cup winners. Three relegations in four seasons, each aided by points deducted for administration, brought them together for the first time last season. By then Pompey had followed Wycombe’s example of 2012 and achieved ownership by supporters’ trust. Their first league meeting in 2013 ended after 45 minutes when Fratton Park was flooded. This season the crowd there of 16,171 was the highest Wycombe had enjoyed in the division. Even then, when they drew 1-1, it was hard to imagine the current position. Portsmouth had started as they ended last season, when Andy Awford, already in the club’s hall of fame as a 300-match player, came in with seven games left, won five then drew the last two and lifted them from 22nd to 13th. On the last day Wycombe won at Torquay to avert a return to the Conference after 21 years, and stood by Gareth Ainsworth. There was a happy reunion on Saturday – Gary Waddock, his predecessor who took him to Adams Park as a player, is now assistant to Awford. At the end of a match that in a goal-to-goal gale seldom reached the heights except in ballooning clearances, the managers agreed it was a game of two halves. Wycombe were woeful into the wind when Matt Tubbs, newly on loan at Portsmouth from Bournemouth, twice failed to beat Matt Ingram one-on-one. The goalkeeper had to save more sharply from Jed Wallace who, in both directions, maintained propulsion as the one in a 4‑3‑1-2. Though Wycombe controlled the second half, they came closest to scoring in the first when Joe Jacobson hit the bar and Sam Wood headed Peter Murphy’s cross wide. Wycombe missed the creativity of their injured captain and leading scorer, Paul Hayes, and have sold Josh Scowen to Barnsley to make good the loss of income from Wasps’ tenancy. “The process of this club is stability, then success,” said Ainsworth. “The wind kept blowing things back down our throats. Elusive today that final touch but we’ll take a point.” He was pleased with a fifth clean sheet in six. A creative winger in his day, he still registers as a player just in case in a tiny squad – No40 last year, 41 this, to match his age. Awford, on the back of a watery vote of confidence, said: “The table doesn’t lie but we were an attacking threat and should have won on chances.” The local paper’s poll on whether to keep him split 50-50. The travelling fans heartened him to the end and echo. “I’ve had that support ever since I walked into the club,” he said. But, if it all turns into a hall of shame, the Conference will welcome his Portsmouth. |