Gaffer: Portsmouth are too pedestrian, too polite and this is a drab season

Gaffer for a Day, Matt Jarvis, aged 25 from Copnor, delivers his verdict on Pompey’s goalless with Gillingham...
Gaffer for a day, Matt Jarvis, named Ellis Harrison as his man of the match against Gillingham. Picture: Graham Hunt/ProSportsImagesGaffer for a day, Matt Jarvis, named Ellis Harrison as his man of the match against Gillingham. Picture: Graham Hunt/ProSportsImages
Gaffer for a day, Matt Jarvis, named Ellis Harrison as his man of the match against Gillingham. Picture: Graham Hunt/ProSportsImages

What did you make of the match?

I don't think you can type a bored laugh!

It was scrappy, the problem is we are very pedestrian, very polite, we pass it around until we see a gap up front, to the defenders, sideways, back again.

It's kind of like European football 5-10 years ago, apart from those teams had aggression and attacking flair, that’s something we are missing a fair bit.

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As for Gillingham, you can see from the opening 10-15 minutes that they were setting up to be hard to break down, typical of a Steve Evans team.

I wasn’t entertained.

 

What do you think Pompey’s problems are?

Firstly, I like watching Marcus Harness going forwards, he gives us that Lowe-esque mercurial movement which can turn the game.

However, at the moment there are gaps between the two defensive midfielders and the two strikers, it’s massive.

Brett Pitman realised and dropped back, but it was too disjointed. There was a big gap in midfield with no-one picking up the second ball, headers or knock downs.

And Ellis Harrison is less effective without support.

Who stood out for you?

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Harrison was my man of the match. Considering he’s not the tallest striker out of the three, he won pretty much all of his headers, and put in effort greater than most of the players too.

Had he been given the service, he would have grabbed a couple of goals.

James Bolton was in my mind as man of the match at the end of the first half, but he faded a bit. Still, he looked strong and had some good ideas down the right wing.

But, over 90 minutes, Harrison just edged it.

 

What are your thoughts on Kenny Jackett?

I am not a staunch ‘Jackett Out’ thinker. Everything is slightly knee-jerk at the moment with games called off and facing bogey teams.

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I don’t want him out at this stage, I would give it until Christmas and decide whether we desperately want to go up this season.

Do we want another campaign like this, in which we may still end up in the play-offs under him? Or is this a 2-3 year plan?

It has to be reviewed. This season has been drab, that’s the only way I can describe it.

 

Alex Bass 6

James Bolton 7

Christian Burgess 6

Sean Raggett 7

Lee Brown 6

Marcus Harness 7

Ben Close 5

Tom Naylor 6

Gareth Evans 7

Brett Pitman 5

Ellis Harrison 8