Duncan Barkes

And back in the day, every single one of those throw-ins would have been a foul throw.

But it's clear to me that there is an unspoken word amongst officials, and I think the players are aware of it, that you can do that now just to get the game going.

Because throw-ins are not necessarily to your advantage.

And so anything you can do to benefit the side that's taking the throw...

worth doing so turning a blind eye to the fact that the law is being broken over and over and over again doesn't matter and they'll probably change the law sometime fairly soon to the ball must be taken from above the head and then thrown forward small point but once you notice it you see you start to get apoplectic about it and a little bit sort of you know

Get a bee in your bonnet, as the phrase used to be.

Well, the bee in my bonnet for that game is that we deserved a point.

And maybe even three, actually.

But, look at the paper in the morning, or rather, look at your screen in the morning and you will see that, undeservedly, we lost that one.

Preston won.

Pompey nil.

Yes, there is a small irony and nothing significant in the fact that Callum Lang hasn't been a Preston player for more than 20 minutes when all of a sudden Pompey show up at the door.

But we'll come back to that in another place.

Team selection for the Preston game.

It seems most likely to most of us that Colby Bishop is not going to be fit.

It looked a nasty injury, whatever it was.

And we know that a scan was taken, but we haven't had much in the way of concrete feedback from the club on that.

Again, they're playing their cards, understandably, close to their chest.

If he doesn't play, and he was seen in a boot after the game, if he doesn't play, that opens the door for Mackenzie Kirk to start.

Or, slightly riskier, but possibly Jacob Brown to wear the metaphorical number nine shirt.