Doyle: All too easy for Pompey's rivals

Pompey are making life too easy for their opponents.
Pompey skipper Michael Doyle   Picture: Joe PeplerPompey skipper Michael Doyle   Picture: Joe Pepler
Pompey skipper Michael Doyle Picture: Joe Pepler

And that’s allowing the likes of Doncaster to snaffle victory from the Blues without making a huge impression.

That’s the view of Blues captain, Michael Doyle, as Darren Ferguson’s side picked up a 2-1 win at Fratton Park on Saturday.

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Doncaster followed on from Blackpool in turning over Paul Cook’s men as they fell to their second successive loss.

Pompey earned plaudits from Tangerines boss Gary Bowyer and spent most of the second half of the Rovers clash on the front foot.

Yet poor goals have proved their undoing on both occasions.

Doyle feels Pompey also need to find a way of being successful when they are not performing at their best.

He said: ‘We look at the games we’ve lost and we’ve underperformed. That’s the common denominator.

‘When you do underperform you need to find a way.

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‘Donny weren’t brilliant but they were workmanlike and knew how to grind out a result.

‘When we don’t play well we get punished.

‘That goes with playing with Portsmouth.

‘We have to disappoint teams and tell them they aren’t getting anything off us.

‘We’re not doing at that the minute. At the minute we’ve been brought down to earth with a bang.

‘I’m not disrespecting Blackpool and Doncaster but I don’t think they had to work overly hard to beat us.

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‘That’s the difference. If a team is to beat you, you have to make them work really hard.

‘It’s not like they popped us off the park. So that shows you something’s missing at the moment.

‘That’s what us as players have to find what that is. That little bit of character, knowhow or whatever it is. We have to show that now.’

Pompey racked up 15 shots to Doncaster’s eight and spent the second half pushing for an equaliser on Saturday - with Doyle feeling a leveller was on the cards until the death.

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The former Sheffeld United man feels his team have paid for becoming lackadaisical away by their winning run

He said: ‘I think we’ve got a bit carried away with winning and playing well.

‘I think we’ve got a bit blasé about it.

‘At the minute I don’t think we, as a team are handling disappointment well.

‘It’s costing us.

‘There’s a little issue which needs to be fixed.

‘I think we could have taken a point from that game and I felt the goal was coming even into stoppage time.’

– JORDAN CROSS