Michael Doyle: The truth about my Portsmouth dressing room bust-up with Christian Burgess - and avoiding the sack

The team-mates were involved in a half-time scrap during the November 2016 visit of Stevenage to Fratton Park.

Neither re-emerged after the interval, with a disgusted Paul Cook substituting both in the ugly aftermath.

Without their skipper and centre-half, the Blues slipped to a 2-1 defeat in that second half, while Burgess was left with a cut to the forehead which required stitches.

In Played Up Pompey Three, Doyle has revealed what went on in that Fratton Park dressing room.

While the aftermath saw the players enrage Cook even further – by disobeying his instructions to cancel their Christmas party that same evening.

‘Stevenage visited Fratton Park and what subsequently happened between myself and Christian Burgess in the dressing room at half-time remains a regret of mine,’ he told Played Up Pompey Three.

‘It was stupid, basically handbags, I didn’t mean it, but heat of the moment things occur, especially in football.

‘These days, dressing room incidents don’t happen as much, there are still a few arguments, but the game has changed, it’s not as vocal and player-led as before.

‘On that occasion, it started with Christian and David Forde shouting at each other as they came in for the interval. Considering the match was goalless at that stage, I told Christian to shut up, to which he responded by telling me where to go.

‘It escalated and we were pulled apart. In the process I kicked out and my boot struck him in the head, straight away I could see blood. There wasn’t even a punch thrown.

‘I still wanted to play in the second half, but we were both substituted and you have to respect Paul Cook’s decision.

‘The pair of us sat in that dressing room, waiting for the lads to return at the final whistle, and I reflected on letting the team down, especially considering we would lose the game 2-1. Ultimately, we won the league that season, so it didn’t matter, but at that moment you feel you have let people down.

‘Do I think it was a sackable offence? Never. Although Pompey’s board did speak about what should happen. We were next in for training on the Tuesday, which meant plenty of time sitting at home contemplating the punishment.

‘Following the squad’s return to training, Christian and I were summoned to see Mark Catlin at Fratton Park. We sat outside his office, waiting to be called in, with the outcome a fine – but only for me.

‘At that point, Christian interrupted and asked: “What about me? It looks like only Doyler has done wrong”. He insisted he should also be fined, with the total going to the club’s Academy and Pompey in the Community.

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‘Other people would have sat there and said nothing – and I have so much respect for him after doing that. He didn’t have to, but it demonstrates the type of bloke he is, what a great fella.

‘There are people who probably haven’t been in an environment when heat-of-the-moment stuff occurs. Everything in football is a reaction, you don’t think anything is going to kick off, it just happens instinctively. Then straight away you regret what you’ve done.

‘That wasn’t the last of the issue, however. The night of that Stevenage game was meant to be our Christmas party, which was immediately cancelled by Paul Cook, but we went out anyway – and he quickly found out.

‘The manager would have taken a lot of pressure after the match, which I probably didn’t realise at the time.

‘The heat was on him – he’d substituted Christian and me at half-time and it resulted in a home defeat. Looking back, I let Cook down: firstly, the falling out with Christian, and then events in the aftermath.

‘I wanted us to still go out as a group that evening, regardless of his instructions – certainly I wasn’t attempting to undermine him. To me, it was the right thing to do, but it wasn’t.

‘We instead went to Southampton that night and it did clear the air, helping bring us closer together, while, the following day, a lot of the lads headed to London for a pre-arranged get together, although I returned home to Market Bosworth.

‘Having been eliminated from the FA Cup, there was no game for two weeks, and we had also been given Monday off.

‘When we returned to training, Cook had found out and lost his head – the character building which followed was as bad as I had ever seen.’

Played Up Pompey Three is priced £18.99 and available from Amazon, Waterstones, the Pompey Store and The Petersfield Bookshop.

For player-autographed copies, with the signatures of Benjani, Richard Hughes, Lee Bradbury or Dave Munks, email [email protected]

Meanwhile, Played Up Pompey Too remains on sale from Amazon.

MORE FROM PLAYED UP POMPEY THREE: Kevin O’Callaghan: I'll always treasure Escape to Victory and nights out with Pele, Michael Caine and Bobby Moore

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