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Stalemate at Crawley holds Pompey positives and negatives

Positives and negatives - Pompey remain unbeaten three games into he League Two season - but will be disappointed they couldn't turn the lion's share of possession into victory at Crawley

Town were quite obviously happy with a goalless draw from the start and set up to frustrate the visitors - an odd approach for a home team, who presumably have some desire to go back up, this early in the campaign.

But if a point was their aim then they achieved it as Pompey failed to win for the first time this season, leaving them with an identical start to 14-15 - three wins and a draw from the first four games.

Pompey had the better chances - though not too many of them - but Michael Doyle, Matt Tubbs and Kyle Bennett were all either denied by good saves or poor finishing.

Boss Paul Cook told The News afterwards: 'We had to be patient and even I wanted to go two up front and put more balls into the box. Unfortunately, I don’t feel we are ready for it and I think by doing that it might have lead to our downfall and that is something I don’t want to risk.

‘I feel at the minute we look like a very competent team. If we are not going to win, we make sure we draw, just keep picking points up because with the side we’ve got and the support we’ve got we’ll certainly win some football matches.’

Pompey: Murphy, Davies (McGurk 50), Stevens, Burgess, Doyle, Tubbs, Roberts, Clarke, Bennett, Atangana, Evans. Subs: Jones, Webster, Stockley, Chaplin, Hollands, Haunstrup

Ref: Fred Graham

Att: 4003 (1,706 away)

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