Gaffer For A Day: I'm worried about Abu Kamara for Portsmouth - we all should be
Gaffer For A Day Luke Atiyah, aged 36 from Bishop’s Waltham, analyses Pompey’s goalless draw at Burnley...
How do you assess Pompey’s performance?
We deserved a point, but I came away slightly disappointed because we could probably play better, which is indicative of much progress we’ve made as a team.
It was quite encouraging. This time last year we lost 4-0 at Birmingham and would have defended a corner poorly or would have crumbled. That’s the improvement.
Burnley had a lot of chances, we allowed them too many, while we had a goal disallowed. I haven't seen the replay, but I thought the officials had a poor game.
On balance, it was probably a fair point. Burnley clearly don’t know how to win games of football, there was that unbelievable miss from Marcus Edwards.
But we are a difficult team to beat, even if we’re riding our luck at times.
Who stood out for you?
We are now a much steadier team and Pack contributes to that. Iyad Mohamed wasn’t bad, Ebou Adams did well when he came on, but Pack was my man of the match.
It was a game lacking in quality, hard for anybody to stand out, although I thought Pack did a good job of controlling it.
We had a reasonable amount of possession, it was fairly evenly balanced, I don’t really think the skipper did much wrong.
There’s clearly quality in that Burnley team, you could see it. On another day we lose that, but not this weekend.
How do you see this season panning out?
Things change really quickly in football, three defeats and suddenly you are down there. However, I can comfortably say there are three or four worse teams than Pompey - and I’m not sure we could have said that during the previous two seasons.
I don’t expect us to be pushing for the play-offs and I don’t really expect us to be in the relegation zone. Preston, Derby, Charlton and Watford - I can’t believe Pompey are going to be worse than those clubs.
I don’t think we’re going to be in a relegation fight, but we also aren’t going to be pulling up trees. That’s lovely, though, that’s what progress is.
The other week a Wolves fan Tweeted about Pompey being a bang-average mid-table team, like it’s an insult. That’s all we’ve wanted to be for two seasons!
What’s your take on Abu Kamara?
He has struggled and is a hard one to figure out. He’s a confidence player and didn't start particularly well when he first joined us in League One, but I’m a little worried whether he has the attributes to make it in the Championship.
If you are a winger, you’ve either got to be very fast or you’ve got to be very skillful. Ryan Kavuma-McQueen has demonstrated that he has that technicality, which makes him a Championship player.
Whereas Kamara goes down too easily, he’s not strong enough, he’s not quick enough. Let’s get behind him, but I think we’ve got a bit of a headache there.
You have to be concerned about him. Anybody not concerned must be blinded by a bit of romance about him coming back.
Nicolas Schmid - 6
Zak Swanson - 6
Regan Poole - 6
Madiodio Dia - 6
Jayden Meghoma - 6
Marlon Pack 7 - MOM
Iyad Mohamed - 6
Abu Kamara - 5
Adrian Segecic - 4 (Ebou Adams - 7)
Ryan Kavuma-McQueen - 5
Marko Milovanovic - 5