Knight: Awful conditions a throwback to my maiden Pompey dismissal

Christian Burgess goes in for a sliding tackle during Saturdays defeat at Blackburn Rovers Picture: Joe Pepler

But despite the atrocious weather conditions, I don’t think the match was bad enough to be called off.

If it started as it became after the 70th minute then that may have been a consideration. But it wasn’t.

I can tell you, I’ve played in a lot, lot worse in the past – what they have done with pitches these days is miraculous.

The first and only sending off of my career came in similar conditions in January 1995 against Leicester in the FA Cup.

The ball was played through on a pitch of mud and puddles and I came off my line to gather and momentum took me out of the box.

You couldn’t see the line and I wasn’t massively over. I wouldn’t have skidded out of the box if it had been dry.

But the referee – Dermot Gallagher – was applying the rules as he saw it and I was given a straight red card, which was really frustrating.

It meant a substitute appearance for Aaron Flahavan, representing his debut for the club.

By the letter of the law, Gallagher was probably right, yet you can’t help but feel common sense should have prevailed.

It blotted my copy book – I wish I had scythed someone down if I was going to earn a red card!

It doesn’t bother me, though, it’s not a big regret. It’s just one of those things, I don’t think I was particularly naughty.

If there had been an opportunity to appeal I would have definitely gone down that route. But that wasn’t there – well the club didn’t offer it to me anyway.

On Saturday there was a bit of surface water in one part of the pitch, which Christian Burgess kept running through with the ball holding up.

It was difficult, but we would have been clutching at straws hoping it would be called off to spare us a defeat.

Granted, it was a shame with the weather on the day, but you’ve got to hold your hand up and admit you’ve been beaten by the better side.

A few days earlier, I was not impressed with Doncaster one little bit – that was an opportunity missed for us.

They were there for the taking and we didn’t start until the sixth minute, by which stage we were already two goals down.

Blackburn, though, were impressive. Along with Wigan, they are the best teams we’ve seen this season.

Having said that, it’s not to say we couldn’t beat them the next time we meet. And it will be very interesting to see Bradford on Saturday.