Pompey boss rues missed opportunity

Pompey boss Paul Cook. Picture: Joe Pepler

Paul Cook was left to curse the victory which got away as Pompey were held to a 1-1 draw against Morecambe.

Substitute Kal Naismith netted within 60 seconds of his introduction to give the Blues a 64th minute lead.

Yet Cook’s men were ultimately left to rue wasting their first-half dominance and plenty of goal-scoring opportunities.

Pompey’s boss pinpointed a mistake from Christian Burgess as being the cause of Lee Molyneux’s 83rd minute leveller.

That prevented the Blues breaking into the top three, following Carlisle’s defeat at Cheltenham on the same night.

And Cook was adamant a win should have been Pompey’s.

He said: ‘Christian has made an horrendous decision to come across and try a header when there is no real danger.

‘That’s football, we’ve all watched games like that before, we’ve had enough opportunities in the first half to put the game to bed and when we get the first goal we expect to see the match out.

‘Credit to Morecambe, they are always a threat on the counter attack, there is a lot of pace in the team.

‘But it’s a game we felt we should have won and unfortunately didn’t so move onto Saturday.

‘Of course we are disappointed when we don’t win but if we had drawn at Carlisle and won tonight everyone’s happy so you just have to stay with it.’