Watching Pompey can be frustrating at times. At times?! Who am I kidding? All the time. When they're playing badly, you're frustrated because it's not better; when they're winning, you're frustrated because you are waiting for the next levelling-out of downturn in fortunes.

In fairness, they're not doing either of the above (winning or losing) at the moment. They're drawing away games, drawing against good teams, drawing home games, drawing against bad teams - and now even drawing against teams who don't draw very often.

The clash with Mansfield wasn't so much a game of two halves, more one of an hour and a half-hour. Pompey were poor - dreadful in places - for the first 60, but exciting to watch for much of the last 30. And despite this leaving them with a record of only one win in their last eight league games (and now four successive draws) I came away thinking: Actually, we might get promoted out of this league...

Has the autumn sunshine that shone on Fratton turned me funny in the head to make such a prediction on the day the Blues - who were second after four games - slipped down to 12th place? No. I realise our current form is not nearly good enough, but I can't get away from the fact that the standard in this league is not very good. Not very good at all.

When Nigel Atangana and Patrick Agyemang came on, Pompey tore Mansfield apart for a while. They scored the deserved equaliser thanks to Atangana's first involvement and should have had two or three more. The dramatic change in fortunes once the personnel and formation were changed will have given Andy Awford plenty to think about - and I do feel the one thing we are missing is the right mixture in midfield and attack, so hopefully the management are now that little bit nearer finding it.

Pompey have what, for this division, is an embarrassment of riches in attacking areas. Dunne, Hollands, Atangana, Wallace, Barcham, Holmes, Storey, Westcarr, Taylor, Agyemang, Drennan. Plenty of talent - more than enough to do well in this league. And, between them, plenty of potential. We just need to work out how best to use them all.

On today's evidence, Atangana surely has to be the first midfield name on the teamsheet all the time he is fit. I'm not privy to the details of how long his absence from the team was down to him not being fit, but there doesn't look a lot wrong with him now and his energy and class make him a must for the starting XI, whatever formation Awford finally settles on.

Dunne has gone off the boil after an excellent start to the season, while Hollands is not the player he was when he burst into Pompey's life at the end of last season - although I did see signs against the Stags that Hollands' eye for goal was coming back. At least he's getting into threatening positions now.

In wide areas, Wallace is another who'd be in my team every week. He can be intensely frustrating at times - you can see how angry he gets with himself when something clever doesn't quite work out - but no-one tries harder to create openings. With an in-form goalscorer in the centre, Wallace could have had 10 assists by now. My own view is we're more potent when there's also a second wide player on the field, be it Barcham or Holmes. Storey ought to be a contender, too, but needs to find the confidence he showed when he first came.

Up front is tricky. Taylor and Westcarr are the best partnership I've seen so far and I do wonder if Agyemang is better used off the bench, as he was to good effect in this game. Drennan is another who, from what I have seen so far, doesn't look like having the impact he had during his first spell.

Defensively, this was another solid-enough display. Paul Jones, Paul Robinson and Joe Devera can hardly be faulted - the goal conceded was a soft one but it was our first in nearly 270 minutes of league football - while the wing-backs were steady enough. I'm warming to Alex Wynter but a fit-again Adam Webster ought to push him hard for that spot in time, while the choice of Nicky Shorey and Dan Butler on the other side is one that most clubs in this division would kill for.

What we need is momentum. This is a young squad and, as a result, a confidence squad. When we get a couple of back-to-back wins behind us, I can see us going on a run like the one that brought five straight wins in Awford's first month in charge last spring. This time, without the end of a season to interrupt it, it might go on for 10 or 15 games.

One little hypothetical stat is that if Pompey had won 1-0 at Hartlepool and York, instead of drawing 0-0, we'd be fourth, not 12th. It's a very tight division and probably will remain so all season with no-one streaking away at the top and no-one adrift at the foot. Plymouth and Morecambe sit in the play-off zone tonight having each won half their games - and having each lost two more than Pompey. You see, you don't have to be world-beaters to have a chance of promotion to League One.

We have the players, and the players can surely see they are good enough. Good enough to put away average teams like Wycombe and Mansfield who were both so happy with a point at Pompey they resorted to quite pathetic time-wasting tactics, knowing the longer their respective games went on, the more chance they'd have of being beaten. It's something, incidentally, that I maintain is worse at this level than in leagues both higher and lower - I don't know why. And it's something a referee with the experience of Stuart Atwell should have dealt with more firmly, along with that horrendous shove of Johnny Ertl into the ad boards by Matt Rhead just before half-time.

The onus is now on Awford to use the ingredients at his disposal to find the right mix, both in terms of the line-up and formation. No-one's demanding an unchanged team for the next 34 games, but less unnecessary tinkering would surely help.

I don't know about everyone else, but I have faith in Awford to find that mix and in Pompey to end up in a mix of their own - the promotion and play-off picture. Am I mad?

Pompey: Pompey: Jones; Devera, Robinson, Ertl (c) (Atangana 68); Wynter, Wallace, Dunne, Hollands, Shorey; Drennan (Agyemang 68), Taylor (Storey 85). Subs not used: Poke, Butler, Holmes, Westcarr

Referee: Stuart Attwell

Attendance:15,585 (397 away fans)

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