'Craziest moment of my career': Forgotten Portsmouth man gunning to shine after Fratton Park nightmare

Now the unfortunate Tom McIntyre is relishing proving his worth to the Fratton faithful after just 54 minutes in competitive football for Pompey.

The left-footer has been paired with Conor Shaughnessy in the centre of the Blues’ defence twice so far in pre-season fixtures as his recovery from a dreadful debut continues.

Signed from Reading for an undisclosed fee in January, McIntyre had trained just twice before his season ended at Fratton Park against Northampton.

The 25-year-old suffered a broken ankle after Mitch Pinnock’s second-half tackle - and, bizarrely, the Pompey man was also sent off in the incident.

Thankfully the sending off was swiftly rescinded upon appeal - and now McIntyre is bidding to make up for lost time.

He told The News: ‘I’ve been playing professionally for 5-6 years, but that was the craziest thing that has ever happened to me. Exactly what you don’t want on your debut.

‘I trained on the Wednesday, we had Thursday off, then trained on the Friday. The manager called me into his office on the Friday, I thought he was going to leave me out of the squad. The lads had been doing so well, I was ready to say no problem, I understand that.

‘When he said I was starting against Northampton, it felt brilliant. When a manager backs you like that it puts so much confidence in you, I was on top of the world, just buzzing.

‘Then 54 minutes into my debut, I’m lying on the floor with a broken ankle and Packs came up to me and said “You've been sent off, mate”. I hadn’t realised!

‘I couldn’t believe it, if anything I thought the other lad was going to have a red card. I thought it was pretty harsh. If anything, he was late, I got to the ball first.

‘If I was a referee in that situation, I don’t think anything needed to happen, it was a 50/50. But, if anyone should have been sent off, it should have been him. He had a few stitches and I had broken my ankle, it was a considerable amount of force.

‘I left on crutches and was trying to convince myself that it was going to be fine, but I woke up the next day and it had got worse - then I realised it wasn’t looking too good.

‘I was gutted, really upset, there was nothing at the time anyone could say to make that better. I was pretty down for a few weeks, but once you have the operation, you pick yourself up and get going again.

‘That’s life isn’t it, you tend to find that a lot with your football career. There are so many highs and lows, but you have to try to do as best as you can to keep level.

‘It’s part and parcel of playing football and hasn’t affected me, I would never duck out of a challenge - and I can’t wait for the Championship again.’

At least there was one positive for McIntyre to take out of his frustrating time on the sidelines.

It enabled the Reading-based defender to spend more time with son Theo, who was born in October 2023.

He added: ‘It was lovely to spend time with my son. It helped a lot having him around albeit difficult being on crutches.

‘He was four months old at the time, so you had to carry him everywhere, which frustrated me because I couldn't actually hold him.

‘But it was great spending time with him, while trying to get my head in the right place.’