Christian Burgess had blood down his face - Robbie Blake lifts lid on infamous Portsmouth half-time bust-up

The duo didn’t reappear after half-time of Pompey’s November 2016 encounter with Stevenage at Fratton Park.

It later transpired they had come to blows during the interval, with a flailing foot cutting the head of Burgess and prompting Paul Cook to substitute both.

Although the game was goalless at the break, the Blues went on to suffer a 2-1 defeat in the absences of Doyle and Burgess.

And Blake, who was a Blues coach at the time, has revealed what occurred within that home dressing room.

He told The News: ‘The worst thing for them was they were sat right next to each other.

‘If you are having an argument with someone on the other side of the dressing room, you not only have players in between, but also a few seconds to change your mind or react in a different way.

‘Unluckily for Doyler and Burge, they were sat right next to each other. You couldn’t have stopped it, it was that quick.

‘Obviously the other lads dipped in as soon as they could, but the damage was already done, so to speak.

‘As a manager, Cookie felt he had to do something about it, he couldn’t let that lie.

‘The one thing that happened was Burge got kicked to the head, there was blood coming down his face. Cookie must have thought “He can’t go out of there with blood on his face”. Even if he wore a headband people would ask “Where has he got a headband from?”.

‘So he made that decision to substitute them both. He didn’t want to, that was a big game for us which we ended up losing.

‘However, sometimes little episodes, little incidents like that, do affect the players, certainly when two of the leaders have gone off. Doyler was a massive influence on that team and the demands he had.

‘The manager had a couple of minutes to decide what to do, especially with a centre-half with blood coming down his face. Cookie was capable of making difficult decisions.

‘Doyler is a fantastic player, a great professional, while Burge has done really well for the club and currently leading by example with his community work.

‘Those two got on afterwards, there were no hard feelings. Their job was to get success for the club - which they did.’

Blake enjoyed a 19-year playing career, featuring in the Premier League and amassing 167 goals in 680 games.

He insists fights in the dressing room and on the training pitch are part of being a professional footballer.

Although he believes they now rarely occur in the modern game.

He added: ‘Fights happen, although not as much these days.

‘When I played, dressing-room fights happened all the time, these scuffles. Sometimes it wasn’t the players, but the manager causing all the problems. Maybe one or two having a spat on the training pitch over a bad tackle.

‘These days you very rarely have confrontations with players, which is down to mentality.

‘You now have different cultures, different upbringings, more emphasis on intelligence and so much more awareness for everything which goes on.

‘With social media how it is, it’s very difficult for anything to get brushed under the carpet.’

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this story on portsmouth.co.uk. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to portsmouth.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to local news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit our Subscription page now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.