Gaffer For A Day: We must take Colby Bishop off Portsmouth penalties - there's someone better for the job
Gaffer For A Day, Tom Beeson, aged 43 from Horndean, delivers his verdict on Pompey’s 2-1 defeat to Norwich...
How do you assess Pompey’s performance?
We looked off the pace for the first half, a yard short, didn't pick any balls up and were defensively lazy. Even in the opening 15 minutes of the second we weren’t great.
Then we managed to get a head of steam. The subs seemed to work, bringing Zak Swanson on at right-back, putting Thomas Waddingham up front, it gave Norwich something more to think about.
Florian Bianchini also did well, to be fair to him. He got on the ball, won the penalty, although didn’t really go on the outside, he kept coming inside.
Having finished the game well, despite the defeat I didn’t leave Fratton Park really annoyed. We deserved a draw on the balance of it considering the pressure we put on Norwich for the last 20 minutes.
Who stood out for you?
That has to be Adrian Segecic. For the goal, for every time he got the ball in the last half an hour, he just looked like he could do something.
He’s head and shoulders above anybody we have at the moment. I know it’s early days, but he is just a class above. He’s one of those players who you give the ball to and he makes things happen.
Without him we haven't got a lot else, Callum Lang and Josh Murphy are obviously also among our better players, but Lang now looks as though he’s going to be out for weeks and Murphy will come good, he is class.
I will be surprised if we’ve still got Segecic this time next year, though.
What’s your take on Colby Bishop’s penalty?
When you are 2-0 behind and win a penalty, you’ve just got to smash it, don’t try to place it. I knew he would miss, it was the way he ran and curved his body.
I never have a lot of faith in Bishop taking penalties. Personally, I don’t think he is a very good striker of the ball. He’s a good poacher, is brilliant at holding the ball up, he does all those things well, but he is not a good striker of the ball.
I would take him off penalties at the moment, give it to someone like Segecic, who has a wicked left foot. Have him on them from now on.
So should it have been a penalty for the challenge on Connor Ogilvie?
He did make a meal of it, but the guy stuck out his leg. You see them given 8/10 times.
The referee Stephen Martin probably bottled it, he didn’t have a very good game, to be honest. If he hadn’t given the first one, he would have given that one.
Whether Ogilvie has dived or looked for it, the Norwich bloke has put his leg out. It’s not like Ogilvie has thrown his body to the floor. It's not an out-and-out dive.
It should have been a penalty - and Segecic should have taken it.
Nicolas Schmid - 6
Jordan Williams - 6
Regan Poole - 7
Conor Shaughnessy - 6
Connor Ogilvie - 6
Andre Dozzell - 7
John Swift - 6
Callum Lang - 6
Adrian Segecic - 8
Josh Murphy - 5
Colby Bishop - 5