‘I thought it was’: Portsmouth man delivers clear verdict on controversial Derby County equaliser
Pompey picked up a 1-1 draw against Derby County at Pride Park.
Hayden Matthews is adamant Derby County’s equaliser against Pompey should've been ruled out for offside.
But the central defender believes the Blues didn’t too ‘too much wrong’ in their hard-fought point at Pride Park.
Although Callum Lang opened the scoring after six minutes with his second goal in successive games, Pompey were pegged back on the stroke of half time.
Pompey verdict on Derby County goal
Joe Ward was able to escape challenges from from Regan Poole and Jordan Williams to break into the box before placing the ball across the face of the goal, with Matthews unable to clear and ultimately converted into his own net.
But the popular Aussie man was insistent an offside should’ve been called in the build up to rule out the Rams’ equaliser.
He said after the draw at Pride Park: ‘I thought it was in the build-up. When it happened I thought it was offside.
‘I think I’ve seen it back on the big screen just after the game and he looked to be offside but there’s no VAR so we’ve got to play to the whistle.’
The Blues were much the better side for large parts of the afternoon in Derbyshire, with John Mousinho’s men frustrating the home supporters after taking an early lead.
Matthews faced his own battle on the pitch and was matched up against £7.3m summer signing Patrick Agyemang, with the 21-year-old coming to the rescue to deny the United States international in the closing stages.
Hayden Matthews on Pompey’s draw at Derby
And although the defender relished the battle against the Derby man, he was proud of the Blues’ result at Pride Park.
He added: ‘I think it was a really good performance away from home.
‘We started really brightly, obviously very disappointing to concede right before half time but we went into the break at 1-1 and we said we can build from this.
‘I don’t think we did too much wrong in the first half, obviously small moments that led up to the goal.
‘My involvement in that as well but as a defender I’m going 10 times out of 10. I have to because he scores either way really.
‘He’s (Patrick Agyemang) is a big lad, similar to myself. I think we had a good battle, a bit of tussle, the ref pulled me up a few times and told me to stop wrestling him but it’s just football. It was a good battle.’