Portsmouth skipper's classy message to devastated Australian as team-mates rally round after costly Hull mistake
The Australian’s 73rd-minute mistake caused the Blues’ 1-0 defeat on Saturday
Josh Murphy has delivered a classy message to devastated Adrian Segecic after his costly Hull mistake.
The Australian has the support of Pompey’s changing room following his 73rd-minute error gifting the Tigers a 1-0 victory at Fratton Park on Saturday.
In the build up, the 21-year-old’s loose pass presented the ball to the visitors, before then intercepting it, only to produce a woefully-hit backpass to Nicolas Schmid.
When Oli McBurnie slid into Schmid in an attempt to block, the ball fell to Matt Crooks, who steered it first time into an empty net for the only goal of the game.
Inevitably, Segecic received criticism from the Fratton faithful over the critical moment, while John Mousinho afterwards described it as ‘unacceptable’.
‘That’s part of football’
And Pack, who revealed senior player Josh Murphy had comforted the upset Segecic , has sent strong support to the youngster.
He told The News: ‘Murph was speaking to Adrian after the game. It’s one of those where once, Murph pulls him and a few lads had a chat with him, as captain you don’t want to keep going over it.
‘That’s part of football, there’s no issue with the lad. Of course he knows he can do better, I have experienced it as a footballer. Others also made mistakes on Saturday, giving the ball away, but it wasn’t as impactful.
‘At least he has shown a bit of bravery to come and get the ball. It just wasn't the right time, probably even for us to play the free-kick short when Ebou was down, so that’s where the issue was.
‘That’s part of football, you are going to give the ball away. It’s just at that moment when we did it, it was in the wrong area and obviously resulted in them scoring.
‘Adrian will come through this as a better player. He will become stronger and it’s part of football. He’s a good kid, he wears his heart on his sleeve, he has been impactful this season and had some really good moments on Saturday.
‘It won’t impact him that badly. We’ll make sure that, as a group, he needs to learn from it, but also get on with it because we have some really important games coming up.
‘It’s football, there’s no need for anyone to say anything because he will be disappointed. I don’t think the lads will be slating him or hammering him because we have all been in that situation.’
Hull had two shots all game
The game’s decisive moment arrived with Hull’s second shot of the match, emphasising the hosts’ dominance.
Pompey bossed possession, had 21 shots and won 11 corners, but never truly tested visiting goalkeeper Ivor Pandur.
As a consequence, it was the Tigers who collected victory after a mistake - and the Blues were nursing successive 1-0 home defeats when their play should have procured so much more.
Pack added ‘It’s disappointing because we lost the game.
‘But, before that, we should have been at least 1-0 up where the game becomes maybe a bit more comfortable or we are not trying to force things as much as we did.’