BAKER DOUBLE TAMES STAGS...
THE SCORELINE suggests Mansfield got a hammering at Fratton Park, but Pompey boss Paul Cook put the result which lifted his side into fourth place into a true perspective.
“Mansfield were excellent throughout the game,” he said. “They came here with a good game plan and were a real threat. The scoreline was unfair to them.”
The visitors’ undoing was three decisions made by referee Roger East, none of which drew a single word of criticism from either manager.
After ten minutes he awarded Pompey a penalty from which they took the lead, and then in the space of three minutes midway through the half he sent off Manafield’s Kyle Howkins and Alex Iacovitti.
And having had some escapes themselves, particularly when in the 27th minute James Baxendale had a carefully placed header hit a post, Portsmouth only clinched the points after some of the crowd had already left their seats.
In the 85th minute substitute Kal Naismith slid the ball in at the far post and that was quickly followed by two goals from Carl Baker, the second of which was a classy effort struck on the rise from 18 yards out.
And Cook also accurately summed up Baker’s contribution after he had been booed by the Fratton Park faithful for some bad errors at set-pieces.
“He had had a bad time earlier and might have been taken off but in the end he came up with two goals,” said Cook.
And while East might have got an earful for his three decisions from the Mansfield camp, their manager Adam Murray did not offer a hint of criticism.
“For 60 minutes we fought toe to toe,” said Murray. “Our game plan worked perfectly and we caused them problems in the final third. And even when we were down to ten men I thought we had been the better team up to then.
“But the result? That is what you call blowing yourself up.
“I could not argue with anything that went on. We made some stupid decisions and that’s why we lost. You can’t jump in like we did for the penalty then later we got two men sent off and I couldn’t argue with that.”
Portsmouth’s opening goal was a typical example of what can go wrong when forwards track back to try to help their defences. Until he was substituted ten minutes after the break Matt Green was often a lone man up front for Mansfield.
But his most telling contribution to the scoreline was the penalty when he lunged at Kyle Bennett from behind as a corner ran loose.
However it was only after Kyle Howkins received a deserved red cardfor his second crude foul in three minutes that Pompey began to impose themselves on the game. And when Iacovitti also went over the top in a challenge Mansfield’s day was done.