Winger pleased to make first league start since February
It has been a long time coming for Ricky Holmes.
But the winger was delighted to make his first league start for Pompey against Chesterfield.
The outcome was not what he would have wanted, though, as the 10-man Blues were beaten by a couple of late goals.
But after being frustrated by injuries last term, it was just a relief for Holmes to be out on the pitch.
He said: “I played against Bournemouth in the cup, but it’s been a long time coming for me in the league.
“I was injured for a long time last term and unfortunately had a small setback in pre-season.
“That was my first league start since the beginning of February and I was chuffed to bits.
“I got through 75 minutes of hard graft and hopefully I can now get some more minutes under my belt.”
It was a frustrating afternoon for Pompey, who were denied a spot-kick just moments before Connolly saw red for an off-the-ball altercation.
Holmes said: “It’s a penalty – end of story. There was one on me as well in the second half – but you get some and you don’t get others.
“David let us down a little bit, but he knows that. He’s more experienced than anyone else in the squad, but we need to move on.
“We gave it our all, despite having to play for almost an hour with 10 men.
“We just seemed to run out of legs a bit towards the end and they managed to get the two late goals.
“The second goal was because we were trying to chase the game and get something from it.
“When we’ve had 11 men on the pitch we haven’t lost in the league this season, so that’s something for us to build on.”