Gaffer For A Day: Dominance, dross, then grit - typical Portsmouth, but we deserved Cardiff victory

What was your assessment of that?

In many ways that was a classic Pompey match. Utter dominance for 20 minutes, then dross for another 20 minutes and let Cardiff back in.

Then a gritty, backs-to-the-wall display for 45 minutes in the second half - but we deserved the win. We created more chances, with Cardiff’s only second-half chance being Callum Robinson’s late header which was straight at Nicolas Schmid.

Poor Zak Swanson didn’t have a good game and needed to go off, whereas Terry Devlin was superb, he closed their left winger Callum O’Dowda down.

There was also that late drama which was like a Benny Hill scene. We hit the bar and three follow-up attempts were all blocked. Put the Benny Hill music to that and it would work!

You mentioned Swanson. Not impressed?

It was his mistake for the goal, his man beat him in the air and he was beaten again shortly before half-time. Nicolas Schmid didn’t move, I guess he wasn’t expecting their player to win the header.

Then it nestles in the net and gives Cardiff confidence. It was a bit of a turning point, we seemed to lose confidence at that point, couldn’t win the second balls, were giving possession away, and Cardiff were taking over.

It was good tactics to bring Devlin on at half-time for Swanson. Devlin has really got into that right-back role, he is a man inspired.

He wins everything in the air, and the guy who gave Swanson so much trouble (O’Dowda) wasn’t seen in the second half.

Colby Bishop has attracted a little criticism of late. What do you make of him?

You write Colby Bishop off at your peril, he has been superb since he came back from his heart issue.

I was in the North Lower and had a great view of his celebration after opening the scoring. With it also being his 50th goal, he was really letting it out. It must have meant an awful lot.

Perhaps it was influenced by all the stuff which has been on social media recently, such as the nonsense that he’s not good enough.

I guess he must feel that frustration as well, while knows he should have got onto the end of a few things and scored in recent weeks. Still, that goal cheered him up a bit.

Criticism of him has been harsh. Okay, he may not have scored as many goals in the Championship, but always puts in a shift. You can never write him off, he’s a constant threat, always tying up defenders, always pressing.

Who stood out for you?

My man of the match was a toss up between Josh Murphy and Bishop. If I could, I’d have the two of them.

I’ll go with Murphy, though, who created both of our goals. He tormented Cardiff in that 20-minute spell in the first half and then got back on it in the second half.

I know he missed a chance, but without him we wouldn’t have had those two goals. He was unplayable at times, although being 2-0 up after 17 minutes did make our players mentally sit back.

They thought they were Leeds and going to win 7-0!

Nicolas Schmid 8

Zak Swanson 5 (Terry Devlin 8)

Conor Shaughnessy 8

Rob Atkinson 8

Connor Ogilvie 7

Andre Dozzell 7

Isaac Hayden 7

Matt Ritchie 7

Callum Lang 6

Josh Murphy 9

Colby Bishop 8