Pompey striker not bothered by potential hostilities

The striker is pushing for a Pompey recall tomorrow as Paul Cook’s men host the team sitting above them in the table on goal difference.

For the 24-year-old it is the opportunity to face the club who sold him for an undisclosed fee in the summer.

Main’s Keepmoat Stadium departure was an acrimonious one, following a position which had become untenable.

Darren Ferguson’s decision to send the striker on loan to Oldham last season backfired – Main subsequently helped the Latics to League One safety at Rovers’ expense.

Controversially, in the eyes of Doncaster fans, under terms of his loan there was no recall option.

Instead, all three parties needed to agree for any agreement to be terminated.

The former Middlesbrough man declined a return to Rovers in favour of remaining at Boundary Park, sparking an inevitable backlash.

Transfer-listed in the summer, there had to be a parting of the ways, with Main contributing three goals so far at his new Fratton Park home.

But he is unmoved by what he expects to be an uncomfortable reaction from the away end.

He said: ‘I would like to play, we’ll see what happens. If I play, I play, if I don’t, I don’t.

‘I am not really interested in Doncaster, that is in the past now, I left them and we move on.

‘I have no reason to look backwards, it’s forwards, onwards and upwards. They do their business and my interests are here, that is all that matters.

‘Whether I play or not, I am sure I’ll get some stick. But that is part and parcel of football, it happens up and down the country every week.

‘I’ve had it before and I am sure it will happen again in the future, it’s no big deal.

‘People read stuff and don’t actually know what goes on internally. You cannot influence every single person’s thoughts and decisions, that is not my worry.

‘All I am concerned about is getting three points tomorrow.

‘I was allowed to leave and get some football elsewhere and started to perform how I know I can and that coincided with a dip in Doncaster’s form.

‘Obviously, it didn’t look too good, there were press reports and things pick up steam quite quickly. It didn’t help the fans reading into certain things so they asked questions – it didn’t look good on Doncaster’s part.

‘As players, we don’t make those decisions. I was told I could leave and wanted to leave – so I left.’

Main made 58 appearances for Doncaster, scoring 11 times.

However, following Ferguson’s October 2015 appointment, he featured only three times.

He added: ‘Their manager never saw any of me, I didn’t train, I didn’t play.

‘I think I possibly trained three or four days in the whole time we were both there – and they weren’t even full sessions.

‘I kept breaking down because I was struggling with a back issue.

‘It is not his fault, it’s not my fault, it’s part of sport. You get injuries, it was just a timing thing.’