Gaffer: Portsmouth red card against Lincoln shows hard tackling no longer allowed in football

Gaffer for a Day, Matt Davies, aged 33 from Anchorage Park, gives his verdict on Pompey’s 1-0 defeat to Lincoln...
Craig MacGillivray earned praise from Gaffer for a Day, Matt Davies, following his performance in the 1-0 defeat to Lincoln. Picture: Joe PeplerCraig MacGillivray earned praise from Gaffer for a Day, Matt Davies, following his performance in the 1-0 defeat to Lincoln. Picture: Joe Pepler
Craig MacGillivray earned praise from Gaffer for a Day, Matt Davies, following his performance in the 1-0 defeat to Lincoln. Picture: Joe Pepler

First of all – that red card?

I’m not happy about Jack Whatmough’s sending off, it seems you can’t go in for a hard tackle these days.

What are you supposed to do? Say “You have the ball, please go around me and score”?

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Imagine the days of Roy Keane, Eric Cantona and Patrick Vieria, what would have happened to them?

Initially I thought it was a yellow and, after replays and again seeing it Wednesday morning, I haven’t changed my mind. In my eyes, he got the ball.

Are you telling me that football now doesn’t allow a hard tackle?

That brings Rasmus Nicolaisen back into the side.

I think he’ll be fine replacing Jack if he fails with his appeal. He’s a good player and a good prospect.

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Obviously Nicolaisen isn’t up to Matt Clarke or Christian Burgess standard, but he looks strong, tries to control the defence and is good in the air.

Having said that, Whatmough and Sean Raggett are our best centre-half partnership. The other day there was a thing going around on Facebook about Raggett being Pompey’s Sergio Ramos!

Nicolaisen is behind those two, they’re better players. I’d like to see him with with us long-term, though. When he plays he steps up well.

What about Pompey’s performance?

Lincoln played quick, attacking football, threatening all the time, but our players still did well, no doubt about that.

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Considering we played an hour with 10 men and only lost late on, there are plenty of positives to take from that.

I am not Kenny Jackett’s biggest fan, but for him to stick with that team which lost 4-0 to Hull, fair play to him.

We’ve now played and lost against League One’s top-two teams in the last week, but we must forget about that.

Let’s focus on Charlton and look ahead, keeping our heads up. We are in a promising position with much still to play for.

Any Pompey players stand out for you against Lincoln?

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Tom Naylor really impressed me, trying to control midfield and putting some good balls through, even though no-one was latching onto them.

He gives everything and is a hard-working skipper who does his best for the club every time he pulls on a shirt.

My man of the match, though, is Craig MacGillivray, who again pulled off some good saves.

It wasn’t his fault for the goals. Whenever he was needed to be called upon, he was there for the team and did really well.

Craig MacGillivray 8

Callum Johnson 7

Jack Whatmough 5

Sean Raggett 7

Lee Brown 6

Marcus Harness 7 (Rasmus Nicolaisen 6)

Tom Naylor 7

Andy Cannon 6

Ronan Curtis 6

Ryan Williams 7

John Marquis 6

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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