Gaffer: I can take defeat, but not when Portsmouth players aren’t trying

Gaffer for a Day, Brendon Bone, aged 47 from Bursledon, delivers his verdict following Pompey’s play-off elimination at the hands of Sunderland...
By Neil Allen
Published 17th May 2019, 02:04 GMT
Lee Brown was the man-of-the-match choice of Gaffer for a Day, Brendon Bone. Picture: Joe PeplerLee Brown was the man-of-the-match choice of Gaffer for a Day, Brendon Bone. Picture: Joe Pepler
Lee Brown was the man-of-the-match choice of Gaffer for a Day, Brendon Bone. Picture: Joe Pepler

What are your thoughts on that?

I can take us losing, but not if the players aren’t trying.

You can question tactics, but we have been playing the same way for two years, and I don’t understand why, when we needed a goal, more players weren’t put up front?

We might have lost three or four nil in the process, but at least would have gone for it.

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And what is the point of having Ben Close when you are banging it forward over his head? He’s never going to get involved.

 

You sound mightily deflated?

Well it feels a little bit like a season wasted – and I will be interested to see what they will do over the summer.

Did we do right things in January? We had a lot of loan players which didn’t feature or weren’t good enough

To think we were one game away from Wembley and getting into the Championship, but some of the players didn’t look interested.

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I don’t know how much the owners will now put in, but would they have stumped up £30-40m in the Championship as opposed to £2m in the current division?

 

Who stood out for you?

Lee Brown was head and shoulders our best player, he was on everything that moved.

In fact, that may have actually been his best performance defensively since arriving at the club.

Unfortunately, though, there were three or four bad displays from his team-mates, perhaps the occasion was too much for them?

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Gareth Evans was really poor, while Close couldn't get in the game,

 

So what next for Matt Clarke and Jamal Lowe?

I have to say, I’m 100 per cent certain that Clarke will go for a decent fee and a sell-on clause. The same goes for Lowe.

Hopefully we will then invest the transfer fees received into a proven goalscorer, which we presently lack.

Invest it into a 20-goal a season player and a decent centre-half. Of the teams that went up, Luton had James Collins and Barnsley had Kieffer Moore.

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I know we have Brett Pitman, but can you see him doing another season?

 

Craig MacGillivray 6

Ben Thompson 6

Christian Burgess 5

Matt Clarke 6

Lee Brown 7

Tom Naylor 6

Ben Close 6

Gareth Evans 5

Brett Pitman 6

Viv Solomon-Otabor 6 (Jamal Lowe 5)

Oli Hawkins 5

Related topics:Lee BrownPortsmouthPompeySunderlandBrett Pitman