‘Horrendous’: Northampton boss blasts red card tackle from Portsmouth new boy after ref call leaves Fratton fuming

Northampton boss Jon Brady believes Tom McIntyre’s red card tackle was ‘horrendous’.

And Brady believes Mitch Pinnock was lucky to be able to continue, after the second-half incident which saw the Pompey new boy dismissed on his debut.

Fratton Park was fuming over referee Sam Purkiss’ decision to give McIntyre given his marching orders, with the Blues weighing up whether to appeal the decision.

Brady is clear he thought the call was warranted, however.

He said: ‘The tackle on Mitch is horrendous, you should see his shin. His sock’s full of blood and I’m so relieved he’s come out of that and is able to carry on and play.’

Brady saw his side outplayed as Pompey went in two goals to the good at the break - and added two more after McIntyre’s dismissal.

He acknowledged the quality of John Mousinho’s side, but was critical of the manner in which Northampton gave up the opportunities for the Blues to strike.

Brady added: ‘The goals we gave away more gave them a helping hand than them do anything special. That was was disappointing.

‘Obviously they are a top side and trying to  win the league - and we are trying to stay in the league.

‘After they were down to 10 men we started to have a bit of purpose. Then we implode from the free-kick. We set up differently and didn’t set up to do anything like that.

‘I’m all for improvisation at the right times, but we loaded them at the back stick and they were one short. We tried to play that short and that was quite disappointing in that moment.

‘Then we’re 3-0 down and really have a mountain to climb, but at 2-0 and 10 men we really had an opportunity because before that we had one or two efforts when we came out second half.