Gaffer: With Chelsea man coming, we're going to have a young, dynamic partnership in charge of Portsmouth. So let's get behind them

Will Hahn chose Joe Morrell as his man of the match against Burton. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImagesWill Hahn chose Joe Morrell as his man of the match against Burton. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImages
Will Hahn chose Joe Morrell as his man of the match against Burton. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImages
Gaffer For A Day, Will Hahn, aged 52 from Waterlooville, delivers his verdict on Pompey’s 1-0 win over Burton...

Talk about late drama, Will!

At the end of the day, we deserved to win. It wasn’t the most enthralling game, but there are so many positives to take out of it.

Possession-wise we looked so much better, our passing looked so much better, we got 20 crosses into the box in the whole game which we haven’t done previously.

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Ultimately, you come away feeling flat because, realistically, we should win that – and had to wait until the 90th minute.

It’s really weird. We won but feel flat. It was a good performance, but for some reason it doesn’t equate to a winning display. But it’s three points.

Who was your man of the match?

At half-time it was between Joe Morrell and Joe Rafferty but, as the game went on, it’s Morrell who gets my vote.

This system suits him and, when we have Morrell and Tom Lowery both fit, it will be interesting how they’re going to play in his team. Can they play in the same team?

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Since John Mousinho has come in we’ve seen a different Morrell, he plays a role he likes, the system suits him, he looks proactive in everything he is doing. He just can’t do any wrong at the moment in my eyes.

This is the World Cup player he should have been. He’s definitely a different player since coming back from Qatar, he looks hungry and gets the team going.

What did you make of Craig MacGillivray’s return?

That save from MacGillivray was Gordon Banks-esque, I thought Colby’s header was a goal, but he somehow parried it wide.

I don’t regret us letting him go in the summer of 2021, we got Gavin Bazunu instead, who is 10 times the goalkeeper he was. But if we had MacGillivray in the team this season it might have given us a bit of stability.

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A lot of fans criticised Josh Griffiths, although I don’t think he was as bad as people made him out to be.

It’s similar to when we had Alan Knight in goal for so many years and, when someone else came in, it was then a case of he won’t do because he’s not Alan Knight. Josh came in for criticism because he wasn’t Gavin Bazunu.

How do you view Jon Harley’s impending arrival as assistant head coach?

I can remember him as a player for us. He was one of those like Brian Howard who was probably a little past his sell-by date and what we could afford at the time.

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He’s coached at Chelsea, played at Chelsea, and is probably the right pedigree and background having worked in their Academy for so long and been their under-23s assistant.

It’s going to be quite a young, dynamic partnership. One guy is a little younger and the other someone of a similar age, but vastly more experience in coaching. It could be a really, really good fit. I hope it is.

I can see the way the team is playing, I like the way the team is playing, it does explain our weaknesses a little more and also highlights our positives.

Josh Oluwayemi – 7

Joe Rafferty – 8

Sean Raggett – 7

Ryley Towler – 7

Connor Ogilvie – 7

Joe Morrell – 8

Louis Thompson – 7

Paddy Lane – 6

Owen Dale – 6

Colby Bishop – 7

Reeco Hackett – 6

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