Pompey head coach: It’s the players’ job to put team first
DANNY COWLEY said the team will always come first as he addressed the issue of Kieron Freeman’s swift exit down the tunnel after his second-half substitution against MK Dons.
The Pompey full-back was replaced in the 56th-minute by transfer deadline day arrival Mahlon Romeo as the score remained goalless.
Yet rather than join the rest of the travelling Blues group in the Stadium MK dugout, the angry 29-yearold headed straight to the changing room as he registered his displeasure at the decision.
It meant the ex-Sheffield United defender missed Ethan Robson’s 72nd-minute winner for the hosts, which came down Pompey’s right shortly after his departure.
Blues head coach Cowley said it was a ‘tactical’ move he made in order to boost his side’s attacking threat down the right-hand side.
And he insisted players have a duty to put aside individual dismay and respect decisions which are made for the good of the team as a whole.
Cowley told BBC Solent: ‘It was just a tactical decision.
‘Football is a team game. It’s an 18-man game, you have an 18-man squad.
‘We were playing with two (number) sixes and we wanted to get more width and athleticism higher up the pitch.
‘I don’t think we got into enough good areas on the right-hand side and that’s why we made the change.
‘Ultimately, it’s our jobs to make those changes and it’s the job of the players to not get caught up in individual disappointment and put the team first.’
Freeman has started all six of Pompey’s league matches so far this term and played the full 90 minutes in the first five of them.
Cowley said last week he believes Freeman and Romeo can play in the same side.