Last October Tony Adams took charge of Portsmouth and raised some hopes of the fans. Since then the results have been pretty disappointing though considering they have won only two of the fifteen Premier League matches and are a paltry point above the relegation zone. Now when they face Liverpool in their Premier League encounter on Saturday, the performance of the coach would be under the microscope.

On their part, Liverpool have themselves been having some tough time of late. They lost to Everton in their 4th round FA cup encounter. To make things worse their captain Steven Gerrard has also been ruled out due to his hamstring injury. On the positive side, Liverpool has not lost against Portsmouth for a very long time, since April 2007, to be precise.

There has been a lot of media speculation suggesting Alan Curbishley, the ex Charlton and West Ham boss, seems to be the frontrunner to take over Pompey from Adams. The heat for his sacking has risen further since their weekend 3-1 loss to Fulham.

On his part the former England and Arsenal captain has tried to sound positive and optimistic all along. Commenting on the media speculation he says, “It’s not my job to focus on what the newspapers say.” Though he has been very frank in accepting that some harsh words were definitely exchanged between him and the players after their forgettable 3-1 loss again Fulham.

Fortunately for Tony, the players and the owners have so far shown their full backing to him. Peter Crouch, incidentally their last year buy from Anfield, has come out openly in his support saying the players are “fully behind” the coach. The Puma football boot wearing Crouch is also one of the team’s best players, incidentally only 2 shy of scoring 50 goals in his career. On their part, Portsmouth have also fiercely denied that any move to sack the manager is being considered by them.

All eyes are now on the Saturday match and there is no doubt that Adams would be under a lot of pressure to deliver. Having been associated with football for such a long time and in different capacities, Tony knows too well that you can never take your position for granted.