POMPEY avoided an unwanted club record tonight.

Defeat at Hartlepool would have set a new record of ten successive league defeats, and sent Guy Whittingham’s men to the foot of the third division.

As it was, Pompey managed a 0-0 stalemate at the only club below them in the table.

They have now gone 19 league games without a win, however, which is just six adrift of the club record set in 1959.

And Pompey remain nine points adrift of safety and facing a third relegation in four seasons.