‘They failed’ - the brutal Portsmouth verdict as Blues’ play-off hopes come to abrupt end

That’s the brutal verdict of The News’ chief sports writer Neil Allen, who believes the players are the reason why the Blues have missed out on the play-offs.

Hopes of a top six spot at the end of the season came to a close on Tuesday evening as John Mousinho’s men could only manage a draw against struggling Oxford United.

The gap to sixth-placed Bolton now sits at seven points with three games to go in the campaign.

Five draws in their last six games have now blown their chances of a play-off finish, and Allen has insisted the Blues have failed to meet expectations this term.

‘Lacklustre,’ he described Pompey’s performance against the U’s on Tuesday evening.

‘We’ve seen that in the last few games. It’s such a shame because this group of players worked so hard to have a consistent, winning spell of games to drag themselves back into the play-off challenge.

‘We’d given up when (Danny) Cowley had left. They’d lost too many games and gone so long without winning.

‘And then John Mousinho cruelly got the hopes up again by going on a great winning run and picking up so many points, hauling them back into the frame.

‘They were presented with good fixtures (in the run-in). Teams struggling against relegation and in the relegation zone.

‘Oxford have gone 15 games without a win and they were good fixtures for a team trying to get into the play-offs. No mistake about that at all.

‘They failed. Pompey only beat one of them. MK Dons, they went down to 10 men due to Joe Morrell’s idiocy but that’s fair enough.

‘Port Vale another one, they’ve now sacked their manager as well!

‘They’ve drawn all these games and they’re games they should be winning if they want to get promotion.

‘The reason why they’ve not won them is because this group of players are not good enough to get promotion.

‘Yet again we saw that on Tuesday against Oxford, a team who had gone 15 games without a win and they should’ve beat Pompey.

‘I’ve said this since January that this group is not good enough. (Josh) Griffiths, (Josh) Koroma and (Michael) Morrison all left. They bought in (Matt) Macey, (Di’Shon) Bernard, (Ryley) Towler and (Paddy) Lane and they strengthened.

‘And Mousinho somehow dragged these performances out of them. But in recent weeks, they’ve dropped back to their standard levels.

‘They’re mid-table. These aren’t bad players but they’re not good enough to get Pompey into the top six and we’re consistently seeing that.

‘They’ve had winning streaks and played well in parts but top teams perform consistently and that’s how they reach the top six.

‘They haven’t got the ability, the mindset or the focus to consistently produce results to get into the top six of League One.

‘In that sense, they’re not good enough for what Pompey want to achieve. They’re good enough for ninth but Pompey don’t want that and they have to get into the top six.’