The talk which should be banned, shades of Matt Clarke and what Portsmouth fans can all agree on - Q&A after maiden league win

Blues reporter Pepe Lacey is joined by Pompey writer Jordan Cross who reflect on the south coast side’s maiden League One victory since the turn of the year and all the key talking points from last night’s game.

Here’s what was discussed.

Pompey finally got their first win of 2022, what did you make of last night’s performance?

It was a win. It was unspectacular I felt for a third of the game, certainly the first 30 minutes.

The atmosphere was flat at Fratton and I thought it was flat on and off the pitch, with Pompey perhaps having a few nibbles.

Obviously it was down to Michael Jacobs again providing the spark, which we’ve seen with goals and assists, and Pompey scored from a corner for once, so that’s something to be positive about.

That has been one of my pet hates from the season that they haven’t threatened enough, with deliveries hitting the first man. Then you have Jacobs who puts in a good ball to Raggett. Shock horror, if you put the ball in good areas for tall centre-halves who are strong in the air, you will score goals.

Pompey really should’ve been comfortable and seen the game out, but in the second half they gave Burton sniff after Gassan Ahadme, of course, got one back.

There was a thought with about 15 minutes to go of “here we go they’re dropping deep and inviting pressure” but through all of that there wasn’t a great deal of threat from Burton through the finale.

I think there was one near-post clearance from Sean Raggett but there was nothing clear cut.

It was a win and we’ll take any win at the moment just not for talk of the play-offs,

I think the ‘p’ word should be banned. It was needed for enthusiasm and encouragement with a first win of 2022 off the back of a positive performance against Oxford.

Michael Jacobs is in the headlines again, he has been involved in all five of Pompey’s past five goals. How pivotal is he going to be for the Blues for the rest of the season?

I think they need to keep him fit, not let him get too tired.

In attack, he’s been everything we expected and I’ve been saying for months Michael Jacobs could be the key man to Pompey’s season.

I’m not the only one who’s been thinking that. I think the stats are three goals and, two assists and a million Pompey fans believing he’s the Blues’ most creative player in their ranks!

Another positive performance from Hayden Carter has drawn talk on social media with fans comparing him to Matt Clarke, how do you rate his time here so far?

It’s a heck of an endorsement to compare him to Matt Clarke, but I can see the similarities.

A big part of that is where he drives forward with the ball, which was Matt Clarke’s trademark driving forward into the opponent’s half.

Carter’s been composed and strong in the tackle. I thought he was excellent at AFC Wimbledon and I think he was rightly given man of the match.

Of course at the Sunderland game there was that mistake, but I've been broadly encouraged with his performances.

You can look back at how he was regarded at Burton last season and highly thought of at Blackburn as a potential hope for the future.

Talking about the whole defence, I think Connor Ogilvie has been colossal and Sean Raggett has been a leader with the captain’s armband.

As a whole, it’s been a case this season that most of the positives have been defensively minded for Pompey - and once again there’s more positives to take there.

Joe Morrell’s red card appeal was turned down by the FA before the game, have they made the right decision there and how big of a miss will he be for Pompey in the next two games?

Joe Morrell has been central to Pompey, he will be a miss, he’s definitely a miss given the lack of midfield options.

I think Connor Ogilvie was a stop-gap there at Fleetwood and ended there again last nigh, while the recall of Harry Jewitt-White shows how light Pompey are there.

Was it harsh? On reflection I think the red card itself was harsh but I also think the FA very rarely overturn those red cards, unless they can be proved wholly wrong – probably meaning there had to be no contact at all.

I think there was enough there for the FA to be able to defend their decision in the panel’s eyes.

They don’t rescind harsh red cards, they rescind them when they are totally wrong and I think they had enough to get themselves out of that one with Joe Morrell.

So it didn’t entirely surprise me, but he will be a big miss over the next two games.

Pompey take on AFC Stoneham in the Hampshire Cup tonight. Already light on first team options, what type of team will we see?

It will be a young team.

The game has been switched backwards and forwards from Fratton Park with a trip to Farnborough on the cards for the winners.

Our understanding is that it will be a young team, there might be a few subs that weren’t used last night as well.

There were under-16s who weren’t eligible because they weren’t actually 16. Now they are they can feature, so that gives us an indication on how young this team may be tonight.

Lookout for Harry Jewitt-White and Izzy Kaba, they’re ones for the future, and I think young ones for the future will be the main focus for this game for Pompey.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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