Stuart McCall: Portsmouth much the better side against Scunthorpe

The Blues had to wait before Omar Bogle and Jamal Lowe got the goals in the final 20 minutes, securing a 2-0 victory for Kenny Jackett’s men.

Promotion-chasing Pompey were much the better side throughout, although they came up against a resilient Iron rearguard.

But having mustered just one shot on target in the clash, McCall was frustrated by his side’s failure to threaten Pompey more at Fratton Park. 

The Scunthorpe boss told his club’s website: ‘It was always going to be tough coming to a side that are pushing at the top of the league. 

‘I think they are 27 points above us and that showed, they are better than us, so we had to be at our best. Unfortunately, we weren’t.

‘They were the better side on the day and the league table does suggest that they are better than us, which is a fact, but that still didn’t mean we couldn’t have got something from here. 

‘We were hopeful and confident that we would, but obviously we didn’t in the end.

‘I was disappointed with our offensive play.

‘I wanted to play two up front with Kyle (Wootton) and Novs (Lee Novak) so that we could carry a threat and not just play a 4-5-1 and be sat back. 

‘We couldn’t get the wing-backs as forward as we would have liked and we didn’t look after the ball well enough.’