Marked for Conor Shaughnessy
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
John Swift in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portsmouth this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Conor Shaughnessy falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Josh Knight gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Portsmouth are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Portsmouth's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Portsmouth has to find a result from somewhere.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer from Charlton Athletic for Ben Killip was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Conor Shaughnessy falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portsmouth this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Conor Shaughnessy, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.98, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ebou Adams dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Portsmouth can pretend not to have heard.
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Portsmouth
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Portsmouth are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
John Swift was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to John Swift, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Portsmouth training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Conor Shaughnessy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Portsmouth, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
John Swift was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Portsmouth training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Conor Shaughnessy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Aji Alese's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Rhys Williams would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rhys Williams is living that version at Portsmouth, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
John Swift in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portsmouth this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Millwall left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Conor Shaughnessy falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Portsmouth turn down the training-ground plan
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” John Swift and Portsmouth agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
John Swift was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Franco Umeh again, and this time the name on the line is Barrow AFC. Portsmouth are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Portsmouth training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Conor Shaughnessy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on John Swift's contract
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Portsmouth
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.