Pompey man: Worst conditions I've played in

Dion Donohue offers no excuse for Pompey’s awful display in Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Blackburn Rovers.

Yet he regards the playing conditions as the worst he has experienced in his footballing career.

Consistent rainfall was hammering Lancashire long before kick-off, however it became more potent as the Blues’ match commenced.

By the 70th minute, puddles had appeared on the Ewood Park pitch, with skidding players tumbling to the turf at regular intervals.

At that stage Tony Mowbray’s team were leading 2-0, with referee Christopher Kavanagh showing no urgency to bring the match to an early conclusion.

Donohue, however, believes a premature end should have been a consideration with the players struggling to keep their feet.

He said: ‘At Sutton Coldfield Town was previously the only time I have played in conditions where the ball physically was stopping dead on the pitch.

‘But I have never played in anything like it was towards the end at Ewood Park. It was comical really, you couldn’t even play football.

‘You could see when people were striking the ball the water was coming up off the pitch, while others were falling over left, right and centre.

‘At one stage, I went to cross a ball and it stopped dead, so I ended up missing the ball completely because of that.

‘Having said that, they (Blackburn) had the same conditions so we can’t use that as an excuse.

‘But it got so bad later in the game it was probably a tough decision for the referee whether to call it off because there wasn’t long to go.

‘It was madness towards the end, the conditions were terrible.

‘Again, though, they had the same conditions as we did and they took the points, so no excuses.’

Pompey suffered a second away defeat in a week following their Ewood Park mauling. As with Tuesday night’s 2-1 loss at Doncaster Rovers, the display was below-par from Jackett’s men, irrespective of the conditions.

Bradley Dack, Danny Graham and Craig Conway netted for Mowbray’s team in largely a one-sided contest as the hosts lifted themselves into sixth spot in League One.

Yet once more concerns were raised over Pompey’s effectiveness on their travels following five defeats in eight league away outings.

A first-half volley from Kyle Bennett which had the Blackburn keeper scrambling to save was the sole meaningful attempt on goal from the visitors.

Mowbray’s men not only scored three times but dominated possession to thoroughly deserve the convincing scoreline. Donohue added: ‘The manager didn’t say they (Blackburn) were physically stronger than us – they were just ahead of us on the day.

‘His analysis is that is where we have got to get to if we want to do anything this year.

‘Blackburn got on top and it was a bad day from us but we will bounce back.’