Ex-Coventry, Sunderland and Hibernian striker makes admission over failure to make his Portsmouth move permanent

The striker enjoyed a fine loan spell at Fratton Park during the 2015-16 season.

Arriving from Sheffield United midway through the campaign, McNulty was an instant hit in Paul Cook’s side’s League Two promotion push.

In total, he scored 12 goals in 34 appearances as the Blues suffered play-off semi-final disappointment at Plymouth.

After that loss, McNulty stated publicly that he wanted to return to PO4 – but it wasn’t to be.

He was kept around at Bramall Lane for pre-season before completing a loan move to Bradford in August 2017.

McNulty has since gone on to represent Coventry – where he netted 27 times when they clinched League Two promotion in 2018 – along with Reading, Sunderland and now Hibernian.

The Scotland international relished his time with Pompey – and wished he’d have been given the opportunity to don the star and crescent again.

McNulty told the What The Falk Podcast: ‘It was amazing. I’m going to say every club I have played for is unbelievable and people are going to say “of course he’s going to say that”.

‘I've been very fortunate for the clubs I’ve played for. Sheffield United is a massive club, Sunderland, Portsmouth – you can't speak highly enough of these clubs.

‘The fans are brilliant, very similar to Celtic and Rangers in the sense that they’re very passionate about their club and everything is about winning and football on a Saturday.

‘I love that, it’s brilliant. As a player, you can feel it and I really loved my time down there.

‘They’d been on a bit of a downfall (dropping from the Premier League to League Two). I joined around November time and scored quite a few goals.

‘We got beat in the semi-finals of the play-offs, which was highly disappointing, but I was desperate to go back.

‘I was even saying to the press at the end of the season that I want to sign here.

‘I wanted to go and was dying for it to happen, but for whatever reason, it didn't happen.

‘It was disappointing at the time but these things happen in football and I really enjoyed my time there.’