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That quickly brought a re-shuffle with Stan opting to increase his midfield and he brought on Paul Weller at the expense of Ian Moore. It was no reflection on Moore but something had to be done and we really needed an extra player in midfield.
It did stem the flow somewhat but Portsmouth were still the better side and it was somewhat surprising that they didn’t increase their lead during the first fort-five minutes. There were odd opportunities for the Clarets but apart from a header from Gareth Taylor tipped over and a Lee Briscoe free kick straight at Hislop that was about it.
At times we were chasing shadows and there is no doubt that Portsmouth looked every bit a top of the table side in that first half and to be honest we could be thankful to go in just a goal behind.
There were no more changes for the second half but the Clarets looked to be much more positive in their approach and were taking the game to Portsmouth. We came close to scoring through Taylor but his attempt hit Hislop before Glen wasted a good opportunity by blazing his shot high and wide with at least two teammates in better positions.
Portsmouth had hardly been in it and an equaliser was now looking more than a possibility but it all went wrong just before the hour when Marlon somehow let a routine shot from Todorov sneak in and it was 2-0.
At 1-0 there is always a chance of getting back into a game but the second seemed to deflate the whole ground. But we kept plugging away and after another couple of chances went begging we got our best opportunity of the afternoon. Referee Clattenburg had no option but to point to the penalty spot after Steve Stone handled a cross from Glen and up stepped Fred West.
Somehow I just didn’t think he was going to score and just as he did against Millwall he hammered the ball as hard as he could and hit the bar. Against Millwall it went in, this time it went over. I really cannot quite believe that we have put our trust in Fred to take penalties and I suspect he is likely to miss the target as often as he hits it taking them like this. We must have better penalty takers on the pitch and two, Taylor and Blake, have never missed for us in league games although Taylor;s effort in the Worthington Cup against Blackpool was hit home on the rebound by Papadopoulos.
To our credit we still kept going and Stone made amends by clearing a brilliant Blake effort from the line and Taylor then missed with a header from a Brad Maylett cross when he should have at least hit the target.
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Thankfully we played only another six minutes after this goal and thankfully we didn’t concede any more. They missed a sitter, Marlon made a good save and then they hit the post as the Clarets just seemed to have folded completely. The referee eventually brought it to an end with the scoreline of 3-0.
So the unbeaten run that started at the end of August with a 0-0 draw against Palace is at an end. Good runs, just like bad runs, always do have to end. But we didn’t play badly, we shouldn’t be having major inquests.
I’m sure there are things we should have done better and certainly with a bit more luck in the second half we could have got back into it. But we were beaten by a side who are, on this form, heading for the Premiership. They were different class to anything we have played this season and only their childish time wasting and whinging let them down.
It should have been no surprise thought, Portsmouth don’t need a good team to come and get a result here. The last time we sent them home was nothing is now over 20 years ago.
All we need to do now though is start another unbeaten run with a good result at Grimsby.
The teams today were:
Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Ian Cox (Dimitri Papadopoulos 72), Arthur Gnohere, Graham Branch (Brad Maylett 65), Glen Little, Steve Davis, Lee Briscoe, Ian Moore (Paul Weller 26), Gareth Taylor, Robbie Blake. Subs not used: Paul Cook, Tony Grant.
Portsmouth: Shaka Hislop, Steve Stone, Arjan de Zeeuw, Linvoy Primus, Matthew Taylor, Paul Ritchie, Lassina Diabate (Carl Robinson 55), Paul Merson, Nigel Quashie, Svetoslav Todorov (Kevin Harper 77), Vincent Pericard. Subs not used: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Gary O’Neil, Mark Burchill.
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Co. Durham).