Fogden: Pompey denied helping hand

The Blues midfielder came on for his longest first-team outing since his return from injury when he replaced the injured Danny East in the first half.

And Fogden was the only Pompey player to really threaten, in an insipid team display, with a double attempt early in the second period.

After seeing his first attempt saved by the goalkeeper, the former Bournemouth man felt his piledriver of a follow-up effort was blocked by the defender’s arm.

Fogden said: ‘I had a shot and the keeper saved the first one but spilled it. But it came back to me, I shot again and it looked like the defender blocked it with his arm.

‘I don’t know the rules on whether it is accidental.

‘It looked like his arm was out a bit to me. On a different day, maybe we’d get that.

‘We came out for the second half in that 15-20 minute spell, the crowd got behind us and if we’d got it to 1-1, anything can happen.

‘Things might have been different.’

It certainly wasn’t a blatant decision and Fogden found it hard to argue that Pompey deserved anything from the game on the balance of play.

He said: ‘We weren’t at it enough. The first half was disappointing and we probably didn’t match their work-rate.

‘Against the top sides up there, the minimum you have got to do is work hard.

‘We didn’t do that on and off the ball.

‘Going in 1-0 down at half-time was always going to be a big climb because they are a good team. They are up there for a reason.

‘They did the basics well and did them better than us.

‘They killed it off when they got the second goal and the game petered out.

‘We didn’t look like getting back into it and we let our heads go down.

‘We can’t afford to do that even at 2-0 down. We’ve got to keep giving everything.’

– STEVE WILSON