Gaffer: I'm always optimistic about Portsmouth, but after Leyton Orient I can only see the play-offs

How can you explain that?

If you can’t defend, you don’t deserve anything. Leyton Orient are among the lowest scorers in League One, yet they come here and score three times in 45 minutes.

Our heads dropped when the first went in, then how did that second goal go in from the corner, while the third was also a set-piece. All three goals were poor to give away.

They remind me of Stevenage, getting the ball forward quickly, and we had no answer to it.

Can Pompey still get promotion?

I think we’re all worried. It’s out of our hands now, other clubs have games in hand and can overtake us.

We’ve proven this season how good we are, we can go away and blow teams away, like Orient, Northampton, Shrewsbury, more than at Fratton Park. It’s not happening at the moment, though.

I am always optimistic, but if you ask a lot of fans, including me, how they feel this weekend, they will say it’s play-offs. Some fans may not even say that.

Who was man of the match?

It wasn’t difficult to choose Tom Lowery as man of the match because so many were poor.

He came on and, in the first few minutes, ignited the crowd a little, going forward with purpose, looking good, being busy, and doing a lot of positive things with the ball.

Lowery himself wasn’t exactly great, but better than the others. It wasn’t a hard decision for me to make.

He’s a little like Joe Morrell in terms of being a bit lightweight, but last season I preferred him to Morrell because he runs forward a lot more with purpose, rather than playing sideways balls and is a lot more direct.

That was last season, this season, of course, we haven't really seen him because of injury.

What do you want from the transfer window?

I would like to get Jonson Clarke-Harris in from Peterborough, we must do anything we can to sign him.

We need more firepower, another striker and a centre-half of the George Edmondson ilk. The spine has been ripped out of our team, so we need a centre-forward, a centre-half and another central midfielder, despite Lowery coming back.

We have wide players who can cause defenders problems, so I don't want any more of them, but we need to get our spine back.

Will Norris - 5

Joe Rafferty - 6

Sean Raggett - 5

Conor Shaughnessy - 5

Jack Sparkes (Terry Devlin - 5) - 4

Marlon Pack - 4

Joe Morrell - 4

Christian Saydee - (Tom Lowery - 6) - 4

Abu Kamara - 4

Colby Bishop - 4

Paddy Lane  - 5