‘I cost team and we should have won game.’ Former Sheffield United, Swansea City and Swindon Town man offers honest assessment of personal performance in Portsmouth draw with Plymouth Argyle

Pompey defender Kieron Freeman has taken responsibility for the draw with Plymouth Argyle on Tuesday night.
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A loss of concentration early in the second half from the former Sheffield United right-back, allowed Ryan Hardie to drive towards Gavin Bazunu and chip home to level the score at Fratton Park in the 2-2 draw.

Danny Cowley had deployed the 29-year-old at centre-back on Tuesday night, as he implemented a back three for the first time in the league this season.

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The decision looked to have paid dividends at half-time thanks to Lee Brown’s opener, but another defensive mishap, this time from Shaun Williams, allowed Hardie to bag his and the visitors second of the game with 10 minutes to spare.

Pompey were staring at their fifth consecutive defeat in all competitions, before Sean Raggett fired home the equaliser in the last minute of the game.

Freeman believes the Blues shouldn’t have needed the hero's intervention from his defensive partner to gain something from the game, and offered an honest assessment on the draw.

Freeman said: ‘I felt like we dominated the game and they scored off of two mistakes. Personally it was my fault for the first one as I lost track of the ball and I didn’t do my job properly. I cost the team and we should have won the game.

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‘I thought as a performance we dominated them really but that’s football. Sometimes you only need one chance to score.

‘We need to dust ourselves off and go again and sometimes football can be a cruel game. You can play badly and win games, or you can play well and lose games and that’s the nature of the beast I guess.

‘Playing in the centre of defence is new to me, I think I’ve only played there once before so I’m still learning. I think it’s the first time we’ve played that formation this season so the team is still learning also.

‘It was one of those occasions where we matched them up and it nearly worked, but on another day you maybe win the game.’