The expected Portsmouth tactics showed up tonight, coupled with a rank-awful Swansea performance for nigh on seventy minutes, resulting in another away defeat. The time-wasting, fake injuries and targeting of Swansea players, which left Stephen Welsh unable to walk off the pitch, pretty much sorted this game out. Portsmouth, though, had the desire. Swansea did not.

With the Swans looking depleted, Eom and Parente not featuring, Stephen Eustáquio injured and Ben Cabango on the bench, you hoped that the changes were more tactical, with another big away game at Birmingham City coming this Saturday.

The game started with a very high Portsmouth press, causing some alarm for the Swans. The home side used some pretty ruthless fouling on Gonçalo Franco, Stephen Welsh and Marko Stamenić. The challenge on Welsh was a very poor one, resulting in him leaving the pitch to be replaced by Ben Cabango. Welsh was clearly in a lot of pain and unable to put any weight on his right knee. The tackle by Ebou Adams was appalling, yet he still argued with the officials about his booking. Referee Corlett was going to have to be far more on his game than he had been for the first twenty-five minutes.

It was a relatively quiet half, bar that incident. Pompey had a shot which Vigouroux, in the Swansea goal, misjudged as it went out for a corner. Jay Fulton got a shot on target, but that was pretty much it in the run-up to the half-hour mark. The issue for the Swans was not being able to get a foot on the ball, especially Franco and Melker Widell.

The fouling continued, with Adam Idah going to ground holding his head. Before that, Jay Fulton had been hauled down. The only hope the home side had was a long throw into the Swansea area. It made you wonder just what these clubs do all week, with that being the only tactic on hand. Options were very limited for the Swans, who looked weary and dysfunctional at times. Joseph Opoku’s poor control wasn’t helping.

On thirty-five minutes, Portsmouth scored. It was messy, but the Swans’ defence was unprepared after a good defensive tackle by Cabango. Vigouroux, too, should have done far better. Devlin found space in the area, and his low drive put Pompey one up. We were not seeing a team that could go top of the division with a win, that’s for sure. Nothing was going for the away side, but then the creativity just wasn’t there. Loose balls were lost, and the direction of travel was with Portsmouth.

The Swans definitely needed half-time.

That didn’t stop the rugby tactics from the home side, who preferred long balls and hit-and-hope deliveries into the Swans’ left-hand corner to win long throw-ins. When the Swans looked as though they could build, they were pressed well and failed to take the initiative. There was a faint glimmer of hope on forty-six minutes when the previously booked Adams hauled down Filip Lissah just outside the area. Fulton pointed out that it was surely a booking. A clever free-kick, with the ball moved sideways to Franco, saw his shot rebound off a Portsmouth defender and over the bar. It was the Swans’ first corner of the game, but eventually Pompey cleared the danger.

That was it: half-time and surely a chance for Matos to pump some energy into his side.

The second half started with Widell replaced by Elijah Just. The plan was clearly to get a foot on the ball and gain some possession. The long-ball game continued from the home side as Just was welcomed with the usual rough play. The referee, who had been very whistle-happy all game, continued to blow whenever a Portsmouth player fell to the ground. The issue now was the Swans’ lack of urgency once again, while Portsmouth were taking ages to restart play. The ball was in play for no more than two minutes of the opening five of this half.

The Swans were getting worse, not better, unable to find a teammate and chasing back to recover from their errors. Just had a wild shot on fifty-three minutes, but it only worried the fans behind the goal. Everything was going against Swansea: loose balls falling to the opposition, touchline decisions and passes without enough legs to reach a player in the same shirt. Idah was unable to complete a simple pass that would surely have created the Swans’ best chance of the night. Portsmouth were not that much better. They, too, were poor. Overall, it was a very poor game.

And then it wasn’t. Well, it got worse before it got better.

Opoku fell over the ball on the breakaway. It really was a very bad night all round for him. The home side continued to slow down the game, with the throw-in rule completely forgotten by the officials. Every long ball the Swans chose to play was hopeless, always finding the opposition. As it stood, with half an hour to go, this was a pretty shocking effort. On sixty minutes, Idah was replaced by Žan Vipotnik.

A decent attack on sixty-two minutes saw Opoku mishit his chance when it was easier to score. Then Vipotnik couldn’t control the ball as Just got in the way with a lame effort. The Swans then found their feet as Lissah burst forward. Adams tried to foul him and injured himself. Good riddance, I hear you say. A corner resulted in yet more poor control, with Just giving away a foul. There was something in this game for Swansea on what was a self-destructive night.

On sixty-seven minutes, we at last saw spirit from the away side. Unfortunately, the balls into the home area were poor and ineffective. There needed to be more intent and more creativity. Every ball the Swans played looked destined for the opposition. When Portsmouth played forward, luck and their own intensity gave them an advantage. Having said that, more cheating by the home side continued to buy them time through fake injuries. The referee, having been played all night by Pompey, failed to recognise the tactics.

On seventy-three minutes, Filip Lissah was replaced by Josh Key. Fulton left too, with Ross Stewart entering the fray. A goal was required, and this was the last throw of the dice. The frailty of the human mind and flag coordination saw Opoku judged offside when he clearly wasn’t. We had fifteen minutes to play. The Swans pushed forward but just didn’t look convincing, with Vipotnik having a shot blocked. From the corner, Opoku hit the away fans’ section. Very poor.

Minutes later, Key failed to get his head on a Just cross. Things were just not going the Swans’ way at all. With ten minutes to go, there was still hope, though. That hope came from Stewart’s header, which led to a Vipotnik penalty to draw the sides level. The Swans pressed on and, in the dying minutes, Stewart was given an excellent chance to win the game. A clever pass from Just saw the Scotsman hit the bar, and any thoughts of three points were gone.

That was summed up in the ninety-second minute when, again, the Swans failed to clear a corner, the ball dropping to Devlin, who fired home. That was pretty much it, but not on the goals front. The Swans pushed forward, leaving spaces at the back, and in the ninety-eighth minute another Pompey goal sent the partisan crowd into overdrive. Waddingham turned Cabango all ends up and fired in Pompey’s third. That’s eight goals the Swans have conceded in two away games, and that once-proud defensive record now looks very average, reflecting what is becoming a pattern of very average Swansea performances away from home turf.

One win in four, an ever-increasing injury list, and it’s Birmingham City away on Saturday (3pm).

⚽️ Pompey: Nicolas Schmid, Regan Poole (c), Adrian Segecic (Abu Kamara 72), Jayden Meghoma, Tyrese Shade (Zak Swanson 79), Terry Devlin, Odin Bailey, Marko Milovanovic (Tom Waddingham 72), Iyad Mohamed (Marlon Pack 54), Ebou Adams (Josh Murphy 72), Madiodio Dia.

Unused Substitutes: Daniel Bielica, Conor Shaughnessy, Rocco Shein, Zak Swanson, Ryan Kavuma-McQueen.

⚽️ Swans : Lawrence Vigouroux 5 Filip Lissah 6 (Josh Key 72) 5 Stephen Welsh 6 (Ben Cabango 23) 5 Jenson Seelt 6 Josh Tymon 6 Jay Fulton 6 (c) (Ross Stewart 72) 6 Marko Stamenić 4 Gonçalo Franco 6 Joseph Opoku 5 Melker Widell 4 (Elijah Just 46) 6 Adam Idah 5 (Zan Vipotnik 60) 6

Unused Substitutes: Andy Fisher, Jeremy Monga, Tom Iorpenda, Thomas Woodward.

Referee : Corlett : Shocker for both sides : 2/10

Photographs as per disclaimer