Portsmouth boss Kenny Jackett lifts lid on surprise Andy Cannon decision at Plymouth

The right-footed midfielder was handed a different remit at Home Park last night in the absence of Ronan Curtis and Michael Jacobs.

With Lee Brown also injured, the Blues’ boss couldn’t push Cam Pring further forward, while opted against starting Jordy Hiwula there.

Instead Cannon was entrusted with the responsibility, although was switched to the centre of midfield in the second half.

And that coincided with a vastly-improved Pompey display which resulted in a 2-2 draw with the Pilgrims.

Jackett said: ‘It showed last night that we were running out of wide men.

‘Ryan Williams was playing with a little bit of a groin injury and that was a frustration because I didn’t feel he was necessarily at his best because of that.

‘But he battled through and hopefully he’s not too bad.

‘We definitely considered Jordy Hiwula, but I did feel he hasn’t had much game time. I do see him as a centre-forward as well.

‘Against a side that are very strong in midfield, it’s also very tough to play four centre-forwards.

‘Putting Lee Brown and Cameron Pring in can give you some balance with the left footers, but that is something which wasn’t there yesterday, unfortunately.

‘We were obviously short of experience and short of players that can play there, so I put in Andy.

‘In the first half, Andy had a good one-two with John Marquis, which was probably our best move of the half, then coming inside the second half I felt he played very well.

‘On the left, he broke into the space pretty well, but was more like himself in the second half in the centre of the field.’