East rues Pompey's failure to finish off Accrington

That is the verdict of Danny East, having seen Pompey held to a 2-2 draw in their opening League Two away fixture.

Peter Murphy’s 85th-minute leveller grabbed a point for James Beattie’s side when victory appeared to be firmly in the visitors’ grasp.

The Blues only had themselves to blame with a mixture of profligacy and excellent goalkeeping thwarting them from tying up the points long before.

Ultimately, David Connolly’s brace was the only return of their attacking play.

Yet East is convinced that on another day there would have been a very different scoreline.

He said: ‘Obviously we are disappointed we didn’t get the win.

‘We attacked really well and that is credit to the two up front who worked well together.

‘We cut them up a lot of times and had a lot of chances – so are disappointed we didn’t take them.

‘That is how it panned out and we lost two points.

‘You have days like that, maybe another day five or six of them go in but Saturday wasn’t the day.

‘Defensively we looked a lot more solid but still conceded two goals and you have to see the game out.

‘But we should have won it.’

For East it was a Football League debut with the Blues, having been an unused substitute in the opening defeat against Oxford.

He started the midweek loss at Bournemouth in the Capital One Cup in the centre of midfield, before being named in Whittingham’s line-up at the Crown Ground.

Having missed the end of pre-season with a hip flexor injury, the youngster from Hull is revelling being part of the Blues’ side.

He added: ‘I had a full pre-season, came back fit and strong and obviously was then injured for a week-and-a-half.

‘I was disappointed not to start the first game of the season.

‘Now I’ve got two games under my belt and I’m looking for more.

‘On Saturday, myself and Yassin weren’t looking to bomb on as full-backs. We wanted to be solid and came away with a point.

‘I’m feeling fit and strong as well, so I’ll look to keep my place.’

– NEIL ALLEN