Gaffer: Trust the process, brick by brick - but I'm really worried about Portsmouth

What did you think of that?

I was very disappointed, especially when it comes to losing against the so-called teams that are going to be in and around us. Cardiff were class, the spaces they made were another level above us.

Our lack of physicality and height is a major thing. In League One you could get away with it because we had Conor Shaughnessy and Sean Raggett, but in the Championship a lot of opposition players are 6ft 2in or 6ft 3in.

On Tuesday night’s display, I can’t see us staying up, but you’ve just got to find three worse teams than us. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen those three teams apart from QPR.

Judging how easy it is to cut through us, I am concerned, but there’s always that glimmer of hope that it may just click.

Did any player deserve any credit?

Jordan Archer was the only glimmer of hope we had from that match. It was the fact he hasn’t played a competitive minute for Pompey this season and he came off the bench into a defence which is leaking goals.

To be fair, I don’t know a lot about him, I just know that he’s been in and around the Championship for a few years. With all the hype and the talk between Nicolas Schmid and Will Norris, he has so far gone under the radar, so maybe I’m doing him a bit of an injustice.

There were a couple of times in the first half where he took too long with the ball. On one occasion, he ended up slipping and they nearly scored, maybe that was first-game nerves.

Me and my mate counted seven saves from him, so if you do that in a man-of-the-match performance and are the shining light of the game then you have to believe in him.

What do you make of the summer recruitment?

Considering we had such good summer signings in League One in 2023, all the Pompey fans, me included, have been saying trust the process, brick by brick, trust your recruitment team.

Some of the signings are for the future, but in the Championship it’s about the here and now.

If you look at Oxford, they have plenty of Championship experience, but you look at our starting XI at Cardiff and there was basically Marlon Pack, Matt Ritchie and Tom McIntyre.

If only we’d had another two or three Championship-experienced players, they might have locked down a lot more against Middlesbrough, for example. Just the tiny details.

Any good/bad signings among the 14 newcomers?

Well, considering the hype, someone who hasn’t impressed so far is Matt Ritchie. Whether we recruited him because of nostalgia and the effect Pack had, I don’t know - but it hasn’t worked yet.

Another negative is Elias Sorensen, although I feel for him and wouldn’t necessarily say he is bad. In an interview he once said he’s more of a left-sided winger, but Josh Murphy is there. Now Sorensen has become a bit of a scapegoat.

On the plus side, Freddie Potts is raw but I really like him, despite him getting shredded in midfield against Cardiff. I understand that can happen, but he will keep progressing.

Mark O’Mahony is another who has impressed. John Mousinho wants to play the pressing game and he fits into that - and also had that lovely little header against Oxford.

Nicolas Schmid - 5 (Jordan Archer - 7)

Regan Poole - 4

Tom McIntyre - 5

Connor Ogilvie - 4

Jordan Williams - 4 (Terry Devlin - 5)

Josh Murphy - 4

Marlon Pack - 4

Freddie Potts - 4

Callum Lang - 5

Paddy Lane - 4 (Kusini Yengi - 6)

Elias Sorensen - 4 (Christian Saydee - 5)