Portsmouth vs Derby: A Night of Football That Occasionally Resembled a Toilet Emergency Portsmouth vs Derby had all the ingredients of a proper Championship match: noise, tackles, misplaced passes, frustrated supporters and, from a Portsmouth perspective, a performance that currently smells a little like something you would urgently need to flush. Derby lead 2–0 as this review is being written, and the scoreline represents a miserable evening for Portsmouth supporters. The home side have seen plenty of the ball and created some pressure, but football is unfortunately not scored using possession statistics, enthusiasm or how loudly someone shouts “COME ON” after a throw-in. If it were, Portsmouth might be doing considerably better. Instead, Derby have been the more efficient side when it mattered, while Portsmouth have sometimes looked like they were trying to pass the ball through a particularly complicated plumbing system. The opening stages promised plenty. Portsmouth attempted to take control, moving the ball around and trying to establish some rhythm. Derby, meanwhile, looked organised and prepared to absorb pressure. Unfortunately for the home side, possession gradually became a bit like owning an expensive toilet brush: technically useful, but not necessarily something you want to celebrate unless it actually solves the problem. Derby struck first, and suddenly Fratton Park had the atmosphere of somebody discovering that the toilet has stopped flushing. There was confusion. There was frustration. There was a brief period of everyone wondering exactly how things had gone wrong so quickly. From there, Portsmouth had the difficult task of responding without becoming desperate. Easier said than done. The home side continued to see a significant amount of possession, but turning that possession into genuinely dangerous opportunities proved difficult. Derby defended stubbornly and efficiently, forcing Portsmouth into situations where attacks often reached the e