Marked for Josh Murphy
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Sep 2026
A 3‑0 win over Newport County, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Luke Le Roux takes the afternoon — 8.13
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luke Le Roux provided it, and the 8.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 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.
Match16 Sep 2026
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Newport County tried to reorganise, Portsmouth did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Rhys Williams 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Harvey Blair
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad21 Sep 2026
John Swift asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Wrexham will be the happier side with the point.
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
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.