Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley admits rethink over qualities of ex-Spurs and Gillingham man Connor Ogilvie

And the Blues boss now acknowledges the former Gillingham man can be considered as a bona fide centre-half.

Cowley recruited the 25-year-old on a free transfer in the summer, earmarking him as left-back competition for Lee Brown.

Yet injury problems forced him to turn to Ogilvie as an emergency central defender for the October trip to Accrington.

The Blues are subsequently unbeaten in 10 League One matches, with the ex-Spurs excelling in a role deemed purely temporary.

And following yesterday’s goalless draw at Cambridge United, which saw Ogilvie’s nose ‘flattened’, Cowley admitted he has now been convinced it can be a permanent position.

He told The News: ‘Connor was left in a bit of a mess against Cambridge, but he’s a tough boy. I always say you would go to war with him – and you would.

‘He’s been really good and done what we expected him to. Low maintenance, high output, they are the ones I like.

‘Yes, I now think he can play centre-half! My job as a manager is always to give players an easy way in and to try to do my best to help them.

‘Maybe that lowered the expectations for him, yet that has helped Connor. You can definitely say he’s a centre-half – and a very good one.

‘I just think he can play both left-back and centre-half, which is what attracted us when we knew we were going to need a small squad.

‘You need players who are going to be versatile.’

Cowley believes Ogilvie broke his nose in the 60th-minute incident which saw Sam Smith dismissed for Cambridge.

The attacker collected a second yellow card, for what Pompey believe was an elbow into the face of Ogilvie.

The defender subsequently received lengthy treatment on the pitch, requiring him to replace his blood-spattered shorts, while seeing out the rest of the match with a swab up each nostril.

That didn’t prevent home fans chanting ‘cheat’ at Ogilvie at one point, despite irrefutable evidence.

Still, he shrugged off the blow and carried on to produce a man-of-the-match display amid a rusty team performance against the 10-man U’s.

Clearly at his own personal cost, according to Cowley.

Pompey’s boss added: ‘He’s got a nose like me now, which is not great, not if you want to look good anyway!

‘He’s got a flat one, it was a nasty one. I don’t think their player meant it, but it was definitely dangerous.

‘It looks broken, it’s a bit disfigured. It was nasty.

‘I haven’t seen the incident back, but I got a good picture of it live.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

You can support our local team of expert Pompey writers by subscribing here for all the latest news from Fratton Park for 14p a day.