Last season I went with Bolton Wanderers and my first set of notes on them are reproduced under the "good luck" sign off . They finished 5th with the second best defensive record, conceding only 36 goals and the two teams who gave up a similar number (Ipswich and Wednesday) were both promoted and every other team conceded at least nine more. The Trotters were very much in the mix, ticked most of the boxes and in any other year would have gone even closer and they also won the EFL Trophy at Wembley, beating champions Plymouth 4-0 (!) before a crowd of almost 80,000. They are a club heading firmly in the right direction and who I feel will continue to flourish and grow under astute and fair minded ownership who will make well judged decisions and I will be surprised if they are not top 6 again. However, the loss of goalkeeper James Trafford and RB Conor Bradley (see my notes from last season below) are HUGE, the former returned to Manchester City and has subsequently been sold for £15m to EPL side Burnley and Bradley is back with the Liverpool U21 team and I assume they will be looking to loan him to a Championship side to further his development. It will be very tough to replace the two and whilst they have already signed a RB and two new keepers, they look either of lower quality /potential and also, in one case (the main keeper), a little injury prone. Most importantly of all, the Bolton odds are, quite rightly given how well they did, half what they were last season. Having said all that, this is a MUCH weaker third tier than it was 12 months ago and Wanderers should go close and I would love to see them promoted, but they cannot make my short list (of one) this time around.

 

Last season's table......

 

2022/23				Overall									Home						Away
				P	W	D	L	F	A	Gdf	Pts	Form	P	W	D	L	F	A	P	W	D	L	F	A
	1		Plymouth Argyle	46	31	8	7	82	47	+35	101	WWWW	23	20	1	2	44	16	23	11	7	5	38	31
	2		Ipswich Town	46	28	14	4	101	35	+66	98	XWWW	23	16	6	1	60	13	23	12	8	3	41	22
	3		Sheffield Wednesday	46	28	12	6	81	37	+44	96	WWWW	23	16	6	1	49	16	23	12	6	5	32	21
	4		Barnsley	46	26	8	12	80	47	+33	86	LXLW	23	16	1	6	45	24	23	10	7	6	35	23
	5		Bolton Wanderers	46	23	12	11	62	36	+26	81	WWLW	23	14	5	4	32	13	23	9	7	7	30	23
	6		Peterborough United	46	24	5	17	75	54	+21	77	WOLW	23	13	4	6	38	25	23	11	1	11	37	29
	7		Derby County	46	21	13	12	67	46	+21	76	LXWW	23	13	6	4	40	20	23	8	7	8	27	26
	8		Portsmouth	46	17	19	10	61	50	+11	70	XXWX	23	9	11	3	34	22	23	8	8	7	27	28
	9		Wycombe Wanderers	46	20	9	17	59	51	+8	69	XLLW	23	11	5	7	32	24	23	9	4	10	27	27
	10		Charlton Athletic	46	16	14	16	70	66	+4	62	XWLW	23	9	7	7	44	31	23	7	7	9	26	35
	11		Lincoln City	46	14	20	12	47	47	+0	62	WLLW	23	7	14	2	22	17	23	7	6	10	25	30
	12		Shrewsbury Town	46	17	8	21	52	61	-9	59	LWLL	23	11	3	9	32	32	23	6	5	12	20	29
	13		Fleetwood Town	46	14	16	16	53	51	+2	58	XLWO	23	7	8	8	25	25	23	7	8	8	28	26

 

The top three were all promoted and along with Derby County, Town and Wednesday were the biggest clubs in League 1 and all massive in third tier terms, capable of attracting 25,000 + crowds week after week. They have been replaced by Wigan Athletic , Reading and Blackpool two of whom have lurched from one financial crisis to another, and Athletic already start with an eight point deduction, we are not sure the money troubles are over with the Royals and they and the Seasiders are having to rebuild. As I said, this is definitely a weaker division.

 

Across the last four seasons, the top 3 places (12 teams total) have been filled by seven who finished between 6th-13th the previous season, which is why I cut short the table at half way.  The three biggest amongst those are Derby, Portsmouth and Charlton and each will be expected to kick on from last season's finishing position, but it is Pompey I am interested in.

 

Portsmouth overspent and fell on very hard times, when, after two FA Cup final appearances (2008 and 2010), seven straight seasons in the EPL and a place in Europe, they suffered three relegations in four seasons, along with three separate points deductions and found themselves in League 2 in 2013/14. It took four seasons on the breadline and almost starting from scratch to get back into L1 which they did in 2017, much of the hard work in rebuilding was done by the Pompey Supporters Trust, but they agreed to sell to the Tornante Company owned by former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner ahead of the start of 17/18 and they have been knocking on the door ever since. Eisner is not the sugar daddy type or likely to simply throw money at any project, but he has got the club stable and under him they have finished 8-4-4-8-10-8, they should have been promoted in at least two of those seasons, lost in the playoff semi finals twice and blew very good positions on other occasions but I feel this could finally be their time.

 

Young head coaches have had great success in this division in recent years and none of those would know League 1 as well as 37 yo Pompey boss John Mousinho, who played over 300 games at this level (550 total) including some 70 for Brentford, his first professional club. He only played some 30 odd games in the Championship, but made a good and very long career making the most of his ability and he was always going to stay in the game and become a coach after he retired. John was a leader on the pitch and very well thought of at every team he ever played for. He had a player/coach role at Oxford United, his final club, before taking the job at Portsmouth in January. Mousinho is well educated, attended college in the US, took a UK University degree whilst still playing and his UEFA Pro License whilst also being chairman of the Professional Footballers Association, stepping down from the role to join Pompey. At the time of his appointment, Portsmouth chief executive Andrew Cullen highlighted Mousinho's leadership and motivational skills as key and his contract has only ever been announced as "long term" which is odd. However, I am led to believe it is very long and was only not announced to avoid putting additional pressure on the first time head coach or club.

 

A whole host of well known and successful coaches were interviewed for the job, but Mousinho was named the stand out candidate and the one always wanted by Director of Football Richard Hughes who is even younger, despite holding that role for over 4 years at Forest Green Rovers until September last year. He was chased for a year by Pompey, the two will work closely together and this is their first proper transfer window together and they have been busy. Clearing out a lot of players seen as surplus to requirements and bringing in a mixture of young talent from clubs further up the football pyramid and others with a lot of experience. RW Gavin Whyte has almost 50 games in the Championship under his belt and is a full Northern Ireland international. CB Regan Poole and LW Anthony Scully have both played in L1 playoff finals in the last two years , the former is closing in on 200 games at this level and the latter has a West Ham grounding ( many years as a youth) is still only 24yo and already has a 38 goal contribution from out wide in L1. They have also been scouting wide and far and CF Kusini Yengi has arrived from Australia and scored a hat-trick at the weekend in a 9-1 win over L2 side Crawley Town. Afterwards, Mousinho spoke about the "fierce competition" he has for starting places amongst his forwards.

 

It was exactly half way (23 games) through last season that Mousinho took charge, they conceded just 20 goals from that point on , which if we extend that to the full season, puts them in that elite defensive ballpark that I touched upon earlier and collected 39 of their 70 points, losing just four times and ending the campaign on an 11 match unbeaten run. Immediately before his arrival, Pompey had taken just 11 points from a possible 45 games, either side of which they averaged 1.903 ppg which is usually good for 2nd-4th place and the club were very tough to beat all season (10 defeats with the third fewest), obviously too many draws, especially at home, but fine margins decided those and key areas where they can clearly improve. Avoid the extended poor run and be a little more ruthless in front of goal and if they can achieve one, hopefully both, in a less competitive division, they have to go well.

 

Chelsea academy manager Jon Harley has joined as #2 to Mousinho, after a decade with the Blues and it looks as though there will be some more EPL loanees coming in via his contacts.

 

The club has already sold over 14,300 season tickets (less than 200 remain) which means that the home ends will be sold out most weeks at famous old Fratton Park (capacity 20K).

 

John Mousinho's interview on the day he took charge.

 

Richard Hughes first interview , two months after joining and when the former coaches were in charge.