Everything Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley has said in build-up to Burton game – including FA investigation, Joe Morrell red card, free agents and Gassan Ahadme

Unfortunately, with so much going on ahead of tonight’s match, none were related to the Brewers’ visit.

Here’s everything that Cowley had to say on the key issues affecting the Blues going into tonight’s game.

Q: The FA have announced they’ll be an investigation into the incident at half-time at Oxford, what do you make of that?

I’ll be interested to see what their findings were.

Q: Have they said anything to you regarding that?

No. Nothing at all.

We’re just waiting to hear what they make of their investigation.

Q: What did you make of Karl Robinson’s response to the incident on Saturday? You were quite candid saying someone slipped and hurt their head, Robinson said he wanted to keep it ‘in house’. Why is there a little bit of difference in terms of that and the information that’s come out?

I didn’t hear Karl Robinson’s response on the matter.

For us, our only focus was on the gentleman that hurt himself.

His name is Roger and he is a volunteer kit-man at Oxford. I spoke to him yesterday (Sunday), just on behalf of the football club just to see how he was.

Obviously he hit his head and I was actually one of the first people on the scene and just out of courtesy and respect to speak to him and see how he was.

The good news is that he’s recovering well and (I) just wanted to reach out and send our love.

Q: What’s the process of you appealing Joe Morrell’s red card?

We spent Sunday trying to find the best footage and unfortunately the footage from the side angle is not clear. It is probably the same view the referee had, which was an impeded one.

Ultimately Louis Thompson and Cameron Brannagan are right in the way of the challenge and I don’t understand how the referee comes to the decision because he can’t see it and that’s clear.

We thankfully, this morning managed to find footage from the Go-Pro in the Oxford United net and that gives us a much clearer indication of the challenge.

Like we felt, Joe is five foot five so he’s only got little legs and they don’t get up high anyway. The ball was high so the foot was high, he nicks the ball before Cameron Brannagan can get there and there is no contact.

We think we’ve got really good grounds for appeal. We spoke to Mike Jones, the head of refereeing at this level, and his exact words to me were that it was a very, very harsh sending off.

But we’ll have to wait and see what the panel says but we believe we've got grounds to appeal and I anticipate Joe being available (for Burton).

Q: What’s the latest on Harry Jewitt-White. He’s was omitted from Havant & Waterlooville’s last two squads. Was he recalled because of that?

Not because of that but our midfield situation is why we’ve called Harry back.

He obviously hasn’t been in the last two squads at Havant after being involved in their first two games and, rather be outside of their squad, we felt it would be better for his development to be inside our squad come tomorrow evening.

Q: What conversation did you have with Paul Doswell over his progress during his short spell there?

We haven’t actually had a conversation with Paul yet.

Gregg Miller spoke to Havant, but I’ve been speaking to Harry quite regularly and he’s spoken to Paul and Paul was very fair.

Havant have had a difficult moment and he’s just chosen to go with more senior players in this situation and circumstance and that was the information that Harry had been given.

We decided with where we are at that the best thing for us to do here and now.

If Harry had been playing regularly I don’t think I would’ve called him back because I would’ve left him out there because it would've been really good for his development.

But the fact he hasn’t been in the last two squads, it made sense to bring him back.

Q: Has that prevented you from looking in the free agent market to fill a gap then?

I don’t think we are in a position to look in the free agent market.

We are working with what we’ve got, we know we are a little bit light in that position.

We lost Shaun Williams (through injury) on deadline day, we may have potentially lost Joe Morrell for three games, which, again, I don’t want to keep looking at referees and rules, but how does violent conduct and serious foul play get three games?

When you look at the law at what violent conduct is and then you look at the law of what serious foul play is, one is like murder and the other is like manslaughter.

For me, the sanction should be appropriate and the fact they’re not is beyond me.

Q: Burton marks the return of Gassan Ahadme. Have you kept up with his progress there?

Gas will come back and will no doubt have a point to prove.

We’ve got nothing but love for Gass, he’s a great kid, brilliant work ethic, trained incredibly hard, just wants to get better and was just frustrated.

I was frustrated that ultimately on match day we were getting in his way and not picking him.

Unfortunately, that sometimes happens in a squad and he’s made a really good move working with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who was an outstanding forward and had a brilliant career in the same position as Gassan,

After tonight we wish him nothing but success.