Evans: No Pompey game made for strange day

As a footballer, you don’t expect to have too many Saturdays free during the season.

The reason we had the day off was because we were knocked out of the FA Cup, which is a negative.

But you can turn that into positive and say it’s good to get some rest in the legs, while other teams in the promotion hunt are playing – and that will hopefully work in our favour.

For me, though, it’s never good to get knocked out of the Cup – and that’s the only reason we were not in action.

I believe we have another weekend off in January, with the Doncaster game moved to a Thursday night.

In some ways, though, you just end up twiddling your thumbs because you don’t know what to do come 3pm on a Saturday.

I chose to go back up to Manchester to see some family and get a bit of rest into my legs.

I say see family but I actually just sat in front of the TV watching all the results come in!

Seeing all of the other teams progressing into the hat for the third round was not very enjoyable, though.

As for the other players, it’s not all rest and relaxation this weekend around the club.

There are a few lads in training today because there is a game at Everton under-23s tomorrow.