Gaffer: Plymouth had 10 good minutes and scored twice – Portsmouth had the rest of the game

What did you make of the ‘Dockyard Derby’?

There’s a rivalry, but it’s no derby. It’s stupid that some claim there to be, I don’t even know where that came from.

Still, Plymouth had 10 good minutes and scored twice – we had the rest of the game.

We were brilliant up until around the 60th minute, but just couldn’t get that second goal to finish it.

We were playing well, the confidence was there, and the players were performing for the shirt, not like a few seasons before. Kenny Jackett sides were never an enjoyable watch.

But we deserved a point in the end and the unbeaten record continues.

Plenty of controversy too.

Being in the South Stand towards the Milton End, I didn’t have a good view of the first-half handball or whether the ball had crossed the line.

Although I could see that Finn Azaz’s goal was clearly offside – and what a waste of a flare for the Plymouth fan who celebrated!

We should have had a foul when Dane Scarlett was pulled back in the second half. Certainly it was a foul, possibly a sending off, but I couldn’t be sure whether it took place outside the box first.

I don’t know what happens with linesmen these days, it’s almost as if the referee wants to tell them what to do first.

Perhaps Scarlett should have gone down. He’s a young kid who wants to score goals, maybe he wanted to stay on his feet because he wanted to get a shot off.

Who stood out for you?

Marlon Pack is the best midfielder in League One, he controls the game. It’s his vision, positional play, everything.

The only thing missing are goals, but I'm sure there’ll come – I put a fiver on him every match to be first scorer!

I actually don’t think there has been a midfielder since Lassana Diarra to be a level above where Pompey are.

Whenever a Championship player comes to you, you hope there’s going to be an improvement, but I didn’t think there would be this much impact. He’s winning man of the match every week.

Early days, obviously, but are you optimistic about this season?

We’ve got the best midfielder in the league, in fact the best group of midfielders considering we can bring on Joe Morrell as a substitute.

We also have three strikers who are scoring and I’m certain they will continue to get goals on a consistent basis.

I actually can’t think of a summer signing who hasn’t improved us, the recruitment has been that good, even if at one point all we had was Marlon Pack!

Perhaps not a lot of people expected us to challenge for the automatic spots, but we’ve started well and I believe it will be a good season for Pompey.

Josh Griffiths – 7

Connor Ogilvie – 7

Michael Morrison – 7

Sean Raggett – 7

Clark Robertson – 7

Owen Dale – 8

Marlon Pack – 9

Tom Lowery (Joe Morrell – 7) – 7

Josh Koroma – 8

Dane Scarlett – 7

Colby Bishop – 7