Gaffer For A Day: Portsmouth is a fantastically-run club. We are staying up, believe it
Gaffer For A Day Joe Williams, aged 27 from Molesley, Birmingham, assesses Pompey’s 1-1 draw at Derby
Were you among the fans chanting ‘We are staying up’?
Absolutely I was, 100 per cent. For me, it has never been in doubt all season, even when we dropped into the relegation zone.
I have full trust in Rich Hughes, John Mousinho and the Eisners. The club is run fantastically well, despite what you see on social media.
I was concerned about relegation before we had Lang back, I was concerned when we had both central defenders out. Obviously Regan Poole returned on Saturday and Josh Knight is on his way back.
If we can keep Callum Lang fit and stick to our game, then we’re going to be fine come February/March.
How do you assess Pompey’s performance?
Overall it was quite solid, it feels like the complete-lack-of-effort performances have now gone. If we can stop getting the easy things wrong then we’ll see a big change in the results.
We’re doing all the hard stuff, but it’s the easy stuff we are getting wrong, such as simple passes going astray, with one leading to a goal against Derby.
For the first 10 minutes we came out fighting and scored the goal through Callum Lang, we came out with a purpose.
We more than deserved a point and probably didn’t deserve all three. However, we were good value for the point.
Who was your man of the match?
It was comfortably Lang, he was relentlessly pressing the whole game and is doing everything right at the moment. We have missed him massively.
Lang is Pompey summed up as a player in terms of his aggression, willingness to get onto the ball and to take players on.
If we can keep that man fit, it changes the course of the season.
What business would you like done in January?
It’s easy for Pompey fans to say spend the money, but we need to spend it in the right places. For me, that is up front and left-back.
Colby Bishop is suffering from a lack of goals and Makenzie Kirk is a development player which we don’t need at the moment, so we need to bring in another striker. I would also loan Kirk to a League One club.
Whether that new striker is to be back up to Colby or challenging that place, we must get someone who’s going to get goals, becoming another outlet for Josh Murphy and Lang. That has to be the priority.
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We also need to get another left-back because of Jacob Farrell’s injuries. As for centre-backs, with them returning from injury at the moment, I don’t think that’s as much of a priority.
If we are strapped for money the priorities are up front and left-back. If we are willing to invest, obviously you’re also getting a midfielder in because John Swift is a bit too slow and sloppy.
Nicolas Schmid - 7
Terry Devlin - 7
Hayden Matthews - 8
Regan Poole - 8
Jordan Williams - 6
Andre Dozzell - 7
Mark Kosznovszky - 6
Callum Lang - 9
Conor Chaplin - 6
Josh Murphy - 7
Colby Bishop - 6