Football Season Review

Portsmouth narrowly missed out on a play-off place in the 2017/18 season and entered the campaign looking to improve on that and secure promotion. They kept the core of their last season's squad together, while buying wisely, with Ronan Curtis, signed from Irish Premier League side Derry, in particular looking like a superb signing and being arguably their most dangerous attacking weapon in the majority of the campaign. Everything looked perfect for Pompey early on. They made a nearly perfect start to the season and were runaway leaders for a time, leading the league in the majority of the first half of the season despite eventually slowing down. Their ultimate undoing was the run of form they had between January and March, as they had a nine-game winless run during this period. They eventually managed to steady the ship and had their automatic promotion hopes in their own hands going into the final four games. However, they managed only a draw away at Sunderland and were ultimately overtaken by Barnsley, who claimed the final promotion place. They were beaten by Sunderland with a 1:0 aggregate score in their play-off semifinal, as their promotion hopes came to an end. While large sections of fans were calling for Kenny Jackett's head at times, Pompey have had a reasonably good season, having finished fourth and won the EFL Trophy. They are on an obvious uptrend as a club, and will fancy their chances of doing one better and winning promotion next season.

Player of the Season: Matt Clarke