Why Portsmouth promotion failure will forever haunt Callum Johnson after painful post-Christmas capitulation

Following his September 2020 arrival from Accrington, the right-back was dreaming of promotion during his maiden Fratton Park season in 2020-21.

What unfolded was yet more heartbreak in Pompey’s ongoing crusade for a Championship return.

Kenny Jackett’s side were top of the table heading into Christmas Day in 2020 following a 2-0 success at Hull.

Boasting the most goals scored in the division and possessing the joint second-best defensive record, the Blues were worthy leaders after 19 matches.

However, League One’s pace setters crumbled for a second time in three seasons, ultimately finishing eighth.

The painful capitulation is still unfathomable for Johnson, who was recently released after 44 Blues appearances.

He told The News: ‘Of course the season doesn’t end at Christmas, but we were top on merit in my opinion, not luck, we’d been around there for a long time.

‘At that time, if someone had said to me we wouldn’t make the play-offs I would have replied “Not a chance”, I backed us all the way.

‘In my first season at Accrington, we won the League Two title and, after joining Pompey, I could see a lot of similarities between the groups.

‘I genuinely thought there was no way we weren’t getting promoted that season, especially at that stage over Christmas.

‘Then we had a bad spell in January and February, we didn’t score goals in big games and big moments and that, ultimately, let us down for promotion.

‘Covid affected us, just about everyone in the squad had it apart from me. I tried to keep myself fit, going running and training, it’s different to match fitness and possibly that had an effect on us, but it’s easy to say that now.

‘There were a number of factors. It possibly needed a few things to go our way, but a few tweaks and I genuinely think we would have been successful.

‘I can’t sit here and say what the club should and shouldn’t have done, I’m just a player, although I did think we had enough.

‘It’s easy to look back with hindsight, but we fell a bit short. We should have been promoted.’

Pompey actually entered the final game of the 2020-21 season under interim head coach Danny Cowley in the final play-off spot.

However, a 1-0 home defeat to Accrington would snatch it from them, instead finishing eighth.

Johnson added: ‘I was absolutely devastated after that Accrington game, it took me a while to get over that in the summer.

‘Even then I thought we’d get into the play-offs, you’re confident, then that happened.

‘To fall as far as we did was wrong, while, as Pompey, we had to be winning games like that at home to reach the play-offs.

‘But the fall from top at Christmas to eighth was where the damage was done.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

You can support our local team of expert Pompey writers by subscribing here for all the latest news from Fratton Park for 9p a day, thanks to our 30%-off transfer window deal.