Gaffer: Pompey hero Conor showed goal-den touch

Recovered yet from that finale?

I hurt my back during the celebrations after Conor Chaplin’s winner, it’s still a bit sore, I’ve pulled a muscle!

When that went in I fell over and four people landed on top, the place went absolutely berserk.

It was pandemonium, bodies everywhere. My mate lost his glasses when Matt Clarke equalised and found them again moments before the winner – only to lose them again! He got them back, though.

Of my group, two of them left with 10 minutes to go because they didn’t think Pompey would get anything.

Instead they had dinner in Frankie & Benny’s when both goals went in – they got ripped on the way home!

We had Christian Burgess and Stuart O’Keefe sat eight rows behind us and it looked like they enjoyed themselves as well.

Was it a deserved first win of 2018?

I don’t think MK Dons deserved to win – and we didn’t either!

Pompey were 10 minutes from being booed off, it was one of those games where I would have been happy with a draw once Matt Clarke levelled.

We weren’t at the races in the first half especially, we struggled.

MK Dons played three at the back and were using the extra man to push the ball wide, that’s where their goal came from.

Still, we were due a late goal. We never score late goals.

Who was your man of the match?

Matt Clarke was awesome, while Nathan Thompson had a great game in midfield, but I’m going for Luke McGee.

Having been dropped against Doncaster last weekend, he came back in and performed like that, which certainly says a lot about his character.

Perhaps it has been another bit in his development, because he is only going to get better.

McGee kept us in the game, we could have been 3-0 down. Even for their goal he positioned himself excellently to make the initial save.

His best stop was in the second half with Ed Upson’s back header, it was going across him and he arched his back to tip it over.

So what next for Chaplin?

That again shows you what he is all about, he sniffs them out, what a scorer he is. Fair play, he was delighted too.

It’s great to see him on the pitch again, he gave us something different, and I’d like to see more of him.

But he has to play with someone to bounce off, he has to be in a two.

Match ratings

Luke McGee 9

Anton Walkes 7

Oli Hawkins 6

Matt Clarke 8

Dion Donohue 7

Ben Close 5

Nathan Thompson 7

Gareth Evans 6

Connor Ronan 6 (Conor Chaplin 7)

Matty Kennedy 6 (Jamal Lowe 6)

Brett Pitman 7