Portsmouth endured more frustration at the weekend as they suffered a 2-0 defeat to Wycombe Wanderers, as the South Coast side continue to lose a grip on the play-off places.

With Sunday's defeat, Danny Cowley's side is now five games without a win in the league and have dropped out of the top six, despite spending the first few months of the season there.

Pompey are in eighth place with 29 points, two behind sixth-place Peterborough United and 13 behind second-place Ipswich Town.

Despite going five games without a win, Portsmouth's defeat on Sunday was only their third in the league this season, and as the football starts to get to the hectic part of the season, Cowley will be hoping his side can start to turn the results around.

Portsmouth will now be preparing to face Accrington Stanley this weekend before playing League Two side Stevenage in the EFL Trophy, and Cowley will know he and his side can't afford to dwell on the defeat to Wycombe.

However, we have taken a look at three things we learnt about Portsmouth in their 2-0 defeat to Wycombe Wanderers…

Away form stuttering

With Sunday's defeat, they have now won just one of their last five league away games, with the victory coming against struggling Forest Green Rovers.

Despite playing some tricky games against teams like Ipswich Town and Charlton Athletic, they have also come up against teams like Morecombe, Forest Green, and Wycombe. In all these games, Pompey should really be looking to get more points than they have.

Away games are always tough in any division, but as well as picking up the results on home turf, it is important that Portsmouth pick up points in these types of games, especially if they want to finish in the top six come the end of the season.

Conceding goals

The first thing Cowley highlighted after their 2-0 defeat was how his side didn’t win their aerial duels or their battles on the pitch.

This latest game now means Portsmouth have only managed two clean sheets in their last 10 games in the league, a record that Cowley won’t be pleased with and will know is an area his side needs to improve in.

Pompey have conceded 20 goals in the league at the time of writing, with only Plymouth Argyle and Peterborough United conceding more in the league’s top eight.

The South Coast side have conceded two or more goals in the league on five occasions so far this season, a record that isn’t too bad, but Cowley will still want to improve as they chase down a top-six finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lacked quality in final third

One area that seems to have appeared in the last few weeks for Portsmouth has been their final ball and their scoring output.

Cowley was keen to point out at the end of the game that his side was short of quality in the final third, and he wasn’t sure if that was down to tiredness or the decision-making of his players.

With the likes of top scorer Colby Bishop, Dane Scarlett, and Ronan Curtis on the pitch, there are players on the pitch with the ability to put chances away if they come their way; becoming more accurate with those balls into the final third is something that Cowley will definitely want to improve on.