Gaffer For A Day: A great season for Portsmouth. Anyone else positive about next year?

Firstly, were you surprised by the Ben Killip selection?

Absolutely, that was a big shock, but I suppose John Mousinho needed to see him play in a match at some point.

For someone who hasn’t played for a while, I thought he did really well. He can definitely kick with both feet, which is always needed for a goalkeeper.

I know we conceded relatively early, but I think Killip did all right. Nicolas Schmid is number one, but I’m happy with all the back-up goalkeepers.

If Mousinho is going to keep Killip beyond the summer, he needed to give him some minutes and hopefully he didn’t have a howler. Which he didn’t, he was okay.

Who stood out for you?

I’m very tempted to name Terry Devlin as man of the match because I thought he had the toughest opponent on that wing, but it has to go to Blair for the fact he started the game and got the goal. He deserves it.

It wasn’t world beating, there are a few things we’ve seen this season from him which have frustrated a lot of people. He fell over a couple of times, there was one moment in the second half where he ran the ball over the line.

But, right at the beginning of the match, he tracked back really well and you could see he’s starting to get how Mousinho wants his players to play.

We had high hopes when we signed him and Abdoulaye Kamara, yet they have gone missing for large parts of the season. You can see there’s a player there, though.

How do you assess the team’s performance?

It was a dead rubber fixture, I don’t think we’re going to be talking about this game for years to come. There wasn’t that much quality on display from both sides to be fair, but the fact is we are safe.

It was an okay performance, nothing special. Surely nobody was expecting us to have another Norwich result, it was just a case of getting this fixture out of the way.

To be fair, considering our away form this season, to come away with a point was actually quite a good result. We’ve played better and lost this season. The final ball let us down quite a few times.

It was a good defensive performance, but the final passes in the final third were a bit frustrating.

Satisfied with how the season went?

I was always trying to be positive throughout the season. A few people around where I sit in the South Stand were saying this job was too big for Mousinho in the Championship, but I believed that, when our players got back fit, we would come through this.

Considering how many injuries we've had in key areas and how bad we've been away from home, I think it has been a great season.

It was all about survival and there’s part of me that thinks if we had Colby Bishop and Conor Shaughnessy all season, could we have been flirting with that last play-off position? Maybe.

But it was all about survival, especially with the budget we have. I’m happy with this season and I am also feeling quite positive for next year.

Ben Killip - 8

Terry Devlin - 8

Conor Shaughnessy (Regan Poole - 8)

Rob Atkinson - 8

Connor Ogilvie - 8

Freddie Potts - 7

Isaac Hayden - 7

Andre Dozzell - 7

Harvey Blair - 8 - MOM

Josh Murphy - 7

Colby Bishop - 7

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