Gaffer: Portsmouth lacked quality and weren't good enough against Sunderland. But let's not have a meltdown

Gaffer For A Day Luke Atiyah chose Callum Lang as his Pompey star man against Sunderland. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImagesGaffer For A Day Luke Atiyah chose Callum Lang as his Pompey star man against Sunderland. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImages
Gaffer For A Day Luke Atiyah chose Callum Lang as his Pompey star man against Sunderland. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImages | Jason Brown/ProSportsImages
Gaffer For A Day, Luke Atiyah, aged 34 from Bishop’s Waltham, assesses Pompey’s 3-1 defeat to Sunderland...

What’s your view of the performance?

It was a bit of a wake-up call, but it also isn’t a meltdown. Everything I say is going to come with a caveat of this is not the team that John Mousinho wants to be putting out. This isn’t the team we’re going to be putting out at the start of November.

We weren’t good enough on Saturday, we lacked quality, and we are going to have games like this. It has been nine seasons of winning many more matches than we’ve lost. That’s not going to be the case any more.

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We are playing a right-back and fourth-choice centre-back in the centre of defence and we have to remember that.

Gaffer For A Day Luke Atiyah chose Callum Lang as his Pompey star man against Sunderland. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImagesGaffer For A Day Luke Atiyah chose Callum Lang as his Pompey star man against Sunderland. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImages
Gaffer For A Day Luke Atiyah chose Callum Lang as his Pompey star man against Sunderland. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImages | Jason Brown/ProSportsImages

Mind you, considering we have a waiting list for season tickets, I saw fans leaving after 60 minutes when that third goal went in. I estimate 150 in the North Stand left, along with a couple of people in front of us in the Fratton End.

We aren’t going to win the majority of our games this season.

Who was your man of the match?

I don’t want to say Callum Lang was the best of a bad bunch because that sounds a bit harsh, but he huffed and puffed and that endeavour earned him a slightly higher mark than anybody else.

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Lang and Sammy Silvera were the only quality we appeared to have. It was a tough game for everyone, but I like the fact Lang knows how to put himself about and seems to have another gear.

We were actually overrun in the midfield, Marlon Pack had a poor game, which is very rare, and when he does it generally means the whole team has a poor game.

What did you make of Abdoulaye Kamara’s debut off the bench?

He looked comfortable on the ball as a whole. It was a tough game for anybody to come on and influence and I know plenty have said he was the only bright spark.

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I have a friend who’s a West Ham fan and he says once Freddie Potts gets into our team he won’t get out again. It will be interesting to see that battle between Kamara and Potts, although I feel Potts is probably likely to start more games than Kamara.

Kamara looked okay on Saturday, I would rather see him ahead of Andre Dozzell. I know we’re very early into the season, but I have yet to see anything from Dozzell which indicates he’s going to pull up any trees. He looks a bit lost sometimes.

How do you assess the transfer window business?

Who knows? Kamara could be a fantastic player, then he might not be. Mark O’Mahony may have a fantastic season here, but he might not. There is a degree of uncertainty.

It was obvious we were interested to some degree in Abu Kamara, Alex Robertson, Tino Anjorin and George Edmondson - and I don’t know whether John and Rich Hughes will be disappointed to miss out on all four of those.

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But I completely trust these guys and their judgement that these young players are going to be good.

Will Norris - 5

Zak Swanson - 5

Jordan Williams - 5

Ryley Towler - 5

Connor Ogilvie - 5

Marlon Pack - 4

Andre Dozzell - 4

Matt Ritchie - 4

Callum Lang - 6

Sammy Silvera - 5

Christian Saydee - 5

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