Gaffer For A Day: Appalling referee cost Portsmouth. Coventry were good but these were game-changing mistakes
Gaffer For A Day, Mark Coates, aged 51 from Hayling Island, assesses Pompey’s 2-1 defeat to Coventry
What was your assessment of the match?
Coventry were very good, one of the best four or five teams we’ve seen while back in the Championship, even though we were disappointed we didn't do better last night.
Part of that was down to poor refereeing, but that’s not the whole story, we missed a couple of chances, we weren't quite at the races, and we’re a better team than that. That shows how much we believe in these players because we’d be sniffing around the play-offs if we didn’t have so much bad luck with injuries.
We were up against the most in-form side in the Championship, we were off the boil, we just dipped. We weren't awful, but we just weren’t good enough to beat Coventry.
The good news is we could be, on another day we may have got at least a draw.
What was your assessment of referee Gavin Ward?
It’s a hard job, it’s easy to lay into the referee, the standard is actually miles ahead of some of the stuff we suffered in League Two.
However, he made a couple of really significant game-changing mistakes and there was at least one penalty we should have had among that.
Not even watching that Jay Dasilva handball is appalling. He’s got to go to Specsavers if he didn’t see it. I can’t believe it. I don’t know what he was doing if he didn’t see that, but it certainly wasn’t refereeing.
Who is your man of the match?
I’m giving it to Makenzie Kirk, just for coming on and giving us all a bit of brightness. It lifted our hearts a bit when we were all feeling a bit glum.
That goal also reminded us that we’ve got some good young players in the wings, despite all the injuries. It was a beautiful finish, straight out of Fifa Soccer!
So much composure for a 21-year-old in just his third Championship appearance. He was getting in great positions before that and maybe could have nicked a goal earlier.
That finish was composed, measured and professional. It will be interesting to see how he develops.
And, to cap it all off, an injury to Adrian Segecic.
It’s heart-breaking, the kid has so much passion. He’s actually been hard done-by after being dropped for a legend having played really, really well.
Segecic came off the bench to make an impact, then that happened. He was heartbroken, we were heartbroken, it was an emotional night and that was probably the worst bit.
You could see he was devastated - and he’s not soft, he never shirks a challenge. He throws himself into the fray, he’s a real warrior.
He knew something was not right, he knows he’s going to be out for a bit, and I’m really gutted for him.
Josef Bursik - 5
Zak Swanson - 6
Josh Knight - 5
Regan Poole - 6
Connor Ogilvie - 6
Marlon Pack - 6
Andre Dozzell - 6
Conor Chaplin - 6
John Swift - 7
Minhyeok Yang - 5
Colby Bishop - 6