Gaffer: The chants of ‘We’re not very good’ was Portsmouth fans in a nutshell, we can laugh at ourselves

It’s been your first match back among the fans for a while. Enjoy it?

My last game was against Arsenal in the FA Cup in March 2020, so it was good for me personally to be there on Tuesday night.

The buzz word going around the fans was ‘gallows humour’ – and I think that is a good synopsis of how Pompey fans feel at the moment.

The chants of ‘We’re not very good’ and stuff like that, that’s Pompey fans in a nutshell, we can laugh at ourselves.

As soon as we conceded it felt like ‘Here we go again’, it didn’t appear we were going to get back into the game and it’s not the first time that has happened.

It took an unbelievable free-kick from Reeco Hackett-Fairchild to give us any sort of hope.

What did you think of the display?

It was very uninspiring, we looked disjointed, and the exasperation of the manager after the game was a clear indication of how he feels.

Even if the team isn’t very good, you’ve just got to try, that’s all Pompey fans want – effort and commitment.

It didn’t look like there were enough committed players out there, which was disappointing.

It’s frustrating and I think there will be disillusionment and disenfranchisement creeping in soon if things continue like this.

Who stood out for you?

Joe Morrell was comfortably Pompey’s man of the match and is showing exactly why he’s a full international.

That class is something we have seen in the last three or four matches, finding open spaces and looking for the best pass he can find. We are quite lucky to have him with the way he’s playing.

Fair play to Hackett-Fairchild too, he scored that free-kick and injected a bit of energy into the game.

I listened to Danny Cowley afterwards and totally agreed with what he was saying, it felt like a toil and Burton were all over us.

How do you assess the situation at the club at present?

I’m really disappointed. I like the Eisners as owners, they were always very good to me, I haven’t a bad word to say about them.

But there are concerns at the moment, with problems mounting up. There’s ticketing and the season-ticket fiasco, the team on the pitch, the manager suggesting that maybe the players aren’t quite up for it.

It feels as if there’s a bit of a fog around the club at the moment.

Gavin Bazunu – 6

Kieron Freeman – 5

Sean Raggett – 5

Shaun Williams – 4

Mahlon Romeo – 5

Lee Brown – 4

Ryan Tunnicliffe – 5

Joe Morrell – 7

Marcus Harness – 5

Ronan Curtis – 5

John Marquis – 4

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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