Neil Allen’s verdict on Coventry City loanee, Portsmouth’s emphatic Doncaster Rovers triumph, play-off chances and much more

The Pompey Q&A returns to reflect on the major talking points from Fratton Park as the Blues eventually found a way past Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.
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Pepe Lacey was joined by chief sports writer Neil Allen to discuss the latest, including that 4-0 victory, Hayden Carter’s impressive form, Tyler Walker’s struggles, contract situations and play-off hopes.

Here’s what was said.

Q Pompey beat Doncaster 4-0 at the weekend thanks to a second-half goal blitz. Was there an element of surprise to see a Blues rack up such a scoreline?

We aren’t looking at this with hindsight because everyone before the game, when they saw the line-ups, thought that’s an attacking team.

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First of all we were trying to work out who was playing where and we came to the conclusion that the wing-backs would be Marcus Harness and Reeco Hackett.

It was an attacking team and it was pretty obvious before kick-off that Danny Cowley had gone brave with an attacking line-up.

Afterwards, the Pompey boss said he just played an extra attacker and views Harness as more of an attacker than Mahlon Romeo.

From left: Tyler Walker, Aiden O'Brien, Danny Cowley and Hayden CarterFrom left: Tyler Walker, Aiden O'Brien, Danny Cowley and Hayden Carter
From left: Tyler Walker, Aiden O'Brien, Danny Cowley and Hayden Carter

There was one holding midfielder, there were two strikers, there was Ronan Curtis and Michael Jacobs behind the forward men, two wingers as wing-backs and Cowley went for it, which we don’t see a Pompey side do.

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It was a good game to go for because Doncaster look like they’re going down, they’ve lost 13 in 16 so it was a good game to go attacking, especially when they were at home.

We didn’t see much of it first half, but second half we did.

It was a surprise to see them go so attacking but good on Danny Cowley for doing that.

Pompey had a handsome win as a result.

Q One of the players to catch the eye was Hayden Carter. How impressed have you been by him since his arrival in January?

For me there were many good performances in defence.

In the first half they weren’t very good.

Sean Raggett was there with a goal-line block but was immense all afternoon, Clark Robertson with his distribution really stood out, while Hayden Carter – who has been an excellent signing – he was very comfortable on the ball.

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He’s got a natural talent when running with the ball, something we used to see with Matt Clark, where he would glide up the pitch effortlessly.

Carter likes to do that, too.

He’s really impressed but there have been some slip-ups where goals have come as a result. But he’s a really good player.

Carter has slotted straight in and has been a very good signing so far.

Q Substitute Aiden O’Brien came on and scored with his first touch, while Tyler Walker has failed to score in any of his first five matches. Is his time to let O’Brien have his chance up top?

It’s a fascinating one with Tyler Walker because his goal scoring pedigree before he came to Pompey was outstanding.

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All these clubs he went to on loan, clubs he joined, different divisions, he’s scored goals everywhere he’s gone.

For Pompey he’s not even missing any chances.

I can only remember him having two chances – one at AFC Wimbledon and against Burton last week.

We simply aren’t seeing him and he’s just anonymous, he’s not impacting on the game, he’s not influencing team play and it’s difficult to see what he brings at the moment.

George Hirst is an honest player, runs around a lot, gets involved and should score more goals, but Walker doesn’t do anything like that.

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Cowley described him as a ‘ghost’ in terms of ghosting into positions but I’d say he’s a ghost at the moment.

Q Pompey have 17 players out of contract in the summer, five of which are loanees. For those who aren’t on loan, will we see talks take place before the summer or will all the action be taking place at the end of the season?

Andy Cullen has said, now the window is over, Pompey can look towards contracts and retaining players.

The no-brainer is Marcus Harness, the club have a clause with him.

Danny Cowley has since said he wants to keep Reeco but the issue with contracts and Pompey is that they have these clauses which are great but they come with pay rises – hence why with Craig MacGillivray last summer, the club would rather release a player than retain him.

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It’s not as simple as activating the contract because, financially, it might not make sense and you renegotiate a completely new contract.

It’s great Pompey do have these clauses but it isn’t that straightforward.

Q Pompey are in the middle of a nice run of fixtures at the moment. Do you think we’ll see the gap to the play-offs narrow for a late play-off push or will it just be for confidence going into next season?

They had Burton and Doncaster at home last week, which they picked up maximum points from, and have Crewe, Shrewsbury and Fleetwood coming up in the next few weeks.

They’re very good fixtures and perhaps it might artificially inflate Pompey’s position as we anticipate them getting some good results out of those.

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But they’re still nine points from the play-offs and I can't see them reaching them.

I think they’re too far behind and it would take something remarkable.

I’ve said it many times that it is all about the summer, get to the end of the season in a decent position.

Last season they finished eighth, this season I don’t see them doing better than that.