Crewe 0 Pompey 0: Jordan Cross' match report

Substitute Curtis Main goes close for Pompey in their 0-0 draw with Crewe at Gresty Road Picture: Joe Pepler

No high fives this time at Gresty Road.

No exultant fans celebrating shoulder-to-shoulder with their jubilant team-mates.

And no iconic images to savour amid the sweetest of victories.

Just the thought of what could, and probably should have been.

And then the growing sense of foreboding as thoughts turn to the plight of one of our brightest young hopes.

On Saturday, Crewe’s home echoed with the memories of Pompey’s last visit there in March 2013.

Back then it was all about defiance as a mish-mash of football’s waifs and strays ended the worst winless run in the club’s history as they fought for survival.

Portsmouth Football Club is a very different beast today. The footings are sound now, the building project is behind schedule and it’s time for tangible signs of progress and things to take shape.

The expectancy is omnipresent. And quite right, too.

Make no mistake, a point on the road at team who have started promisingly after dropping into League One is nothing to be too downcast about.

But the manner in which Paul Cook’s men set about Crewe so systematically for the first 20 minutes raised the prospect of a maximum from possibility to inevitability.

Pompey moved the ball around with purpose and pace. Carl Baker surged, Milan Lalkovic probed and Kal Naismith overlapped as the visitors went about their business with purpose and intent.

Balls were peppered into the home penalty area from every conceivable angle. Deep-lying deliveries. Check. Break the lines and reach the byline. Check.

Like watching Team GB in the Rio cycling velodrome, the demand for success has replaced what for so long has been the hope of victory.