Gaffer: I don't see what Bryn Morris does - time for Ben Close's Portsmouth return

Gaffer for a Day, Martin Daniels, aged 32 from Lewisham, South London, looks ahead to Pompey’s clash with Doncaster...
Gaffer for a Day, Martin Daniels, believes Ben Close should replace Bryn Morris against Doncaster. Picture: Nigel Keene/ProSportsImagesGaffer for a Day, Martin Daniels, believes Ben Close should replace Bryn Morris against Doncaster. Picture: Nigel Keene/ProSportsImages
Gaffer for a Day, Martin Daniels, believes Ben Close should replace Bryn Morris against Doncaster. Picture: Nigel Keene/ProSportsImages

This is a game Pompey should win, even though I consider Doncaster a top-12 team.

Certainly I don’t expect it to be an MK Dons-style game when the opposition have all the possession. I was actually pleased how we ground that one out.

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Looking at changes, I would bring Ben Close in for Bryn Morris, which no doubt a lot of people would agree with.

I didn’t dislike Morris when he first joined. I remember away at Southend when we were great for one half and then absolutely terrible for the other in a 3-3 draw.

He and Cameron McGeehan did a pretty fine job in those play-off games against Oxford United, they did what they had been told to do.

It’s just that I don’t believe Morris offers an awful lot – and I don’t think he has distinctive talents which are better than anyone else.

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Close has a range of passing and shuttles around, he is much better suited to the team, whereas you don't see a lot of runs from Morris.

Of course, Close is also quite adept at scoring key goals. As much as we like to think there are a lot of goals in this team, I don’t actually think there is most of the time.

Take Ronan Curtis out and there’s not many. Ellis Harrison stretches sides but if he played 40 times then he would score 10 goals.

Although I would continue with Harrison considering John Marquis is an expensive car that you can’t drive. He was bought almost pointlessly, he doesn’t fit the system.

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I would have probably put all my eggs in a Herbie Kane-style basket, but he’s plundering in Liverpool reserves

We spent a lot of money on Marquis and he’s an asset depreciating week on week. People would buy him, but probably at half the price, which is a shame.

As for the defence, I’m not Sean Raggett’s biggest fan, but he is a consistent person, even if he needs to play 10 games to become a good player.

I do like the idea of Rasmus Nicolaisen and he does look decent. He’s left footed and did pretty well on Saturday against MK Dons.

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He will work out fine, although I know he's itching for regular first-team football.

Hopefully we can count on our saviour Jack Whatmough. If he hadn’t suffered those injures, he would have followed Matt Clarke’s progression a long time ago.

Whatmough is a top half of the Championship player.

Pompey (4-2-3-1): MacGillivray, Johnson, Whatmough, Raggett, Brown, Naylor, Close, Jacobs, Harness, Curtis.

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