Pompey get a point but it's despair in Devon
Tuesday, 1st Mar 2016 22:53 by pompey-fans.com staff

Can there be a more infuriating team to follow than Pompey away from home? Well probably, but just when you think they are going to keep the late-goal gremlins at bay, they blow it again.

A 1-1 draw at Exeter is not in itself a disastrous result but put it alongside the away failures at Yeovil and Barnet last week and you have a total of two points from three games when a return of five or six should have been possible.

There was another start for Conor Chaplin as Paul Cook kept faith with the players who had started against Cambridge and Chaplin was almost in with a sniff of goal but he couldn't control Kai Naismith's pass.

Christian Burgess and Michael Doyle also tested City keeper Bobby Olejnik, while at the other end ex-Fratton loanee Jayden Stockley missed two great opportunities.

Chaplin fired Pompey ahead on 31 minutes when he chested down a pass on the edge of the area and finished superbly. Marc McNulty almost set him up to complete a quickfire double minutes later but the Blues were content enough with a lead at the break.

The second half followed a similar pattern , with Chaplin almost squeezing home a shot while prone on the pitch at one end and Stockley threatening again at the other.

Gareth Evans and Adam Barton came on for the latter stages but if either change was designed to stiffen up Pompey at the back it didn't work as Exeter got what to Pompey fans is becoming an all-too-familiar late equaliser.

There seemed no particular danger as Exeter got forward but Ollie Watkins somehow found space to rifle a shot past the unfortunate Ryan Fulton - who has yet to keep a clean sheet for Pompey.

It could have been an even worse finish for Cook's men, with Fulton needing to be alert to push an Alex Nicholls free kick round the post.

So another night of frustration for the Fratton faithful and it's on to Stevenage on Saturday - but the gap between third place, now occupied by Plymouth, and Pompey is 11 points, a lot of ground to make up with 13 games to go.

Pompey: Fulton; Davies, Burgess, Webster, Stevens; Hollands, Doyle (c); Naismith, Chaplin (Evans 79), Bennett (Barton 82); McNulty. Subs not used: Bass, Freeman, Clarke, Haunstrup, Tollitt

Referee: Brendan Malone

Attendance: 3,855 (695 Pompey fans)