Gaffer: Referee Alan Young was out of his depth and completely ruined Portsmouth's game with Fleetwood

How do you assess that match?

We were the better team in the first half, then the second half went flat. Let’s be honest, bringing on Ellis Harrison affected us negatively, he is badly out of form at the minute.

I wouldn't have taken Ryan Williams off. When we had Harrison, all we seemed to revert to was playing on their full-backs’ weakness in the air.

I don’t think we did enough in that second half to win the game, as it went on we became flat, which was worrying.

Harrison has been really poor this season, he’s gone backwards, and it upset the momentum on Tuesday night.

What did you make of the referee, Alan Young?

He absolutely ruined the game and set the tone when he booked Ronan Curtis after following up when his first-half shot was saved.

The Fleetwood players were immediately around the referee, smelling blood, and it began a night of weak officiating, slowing things down, and insisting throw-ins had to be taken from the right place.

As for that backpass, the linesman had to remind him of the rules.

Jack Whatmough was elbowed in the face, I don’t know how Danny Andrews stayed on the pitch – the referee was so out of his depth.

How do you see this league shaping up?

It is wide open, I haven’t seen a good team all season, and breaking into the top two is a nice little boost.

I see it as a positive. I remember going to Crawley in March 2017 after that Crewe game and, once we won that to move into the top three, the momentum changed.

I think we’ll go and beat Hull on Friday night and go top of League One. I’ve seen them a couple of times on TV and they are nothing special at all.

Hull have a couple of good centre-halves, the midfield is over-hyped, and there is nothing to be afraid of. I back us to go there and win, although I won’t be too disappointed with a draw.

Who was your man of the match?

Andy Cannon had a great game in midfield, Craig MacGillivray made two outstanding saves, but I’m going for Cam Pring.

He gets a bit of stick at times and I have been a little critical, but he definitely has qualities coming forward – and Fleetwood was his best performance in a Pompey shirt.

Pring had big shoes to fill in the absence of Lee Brown, who is as good a left-back as you’ll get in this league.

But he knuckled down and had Barrie McKay in his pocket, as well as finding time to get forward, which really impressed me.

Craig MacGillivray 8

Callum Johnson 6

Jack Whatmough 8

Sean Raggett 7

Cam Pring 8

Marcus Harness 7

Tom Naylor 7

Andy Cannon 8

Ronan Curtis 6

Ryan Williams 7

John Marquis 7

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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