Midfielder hoping for run in the side
It was his first start in more than two months after undergoing knee surgery.
So James Dunne was happy to be back in action in Pompey’s 1-1 draw against Burton.
The midfielder had appeared as a late substitute in the previous two matches at Luton and Newport.
And he lasted 73 minutes against the Brewers before being replaced by Johnny Ertl.
“I got a kick on the ankle, but it was nothing too serious,” explained Dunne. “I went off more as a precaution, really.
“I’ve hated missing such a lot of games, but I had to have an operation otherwise it would get worse.
“Hopefully that’s all behind me now and I can get back to playing regularly for Pompey.
“It’s not helping that the rain means we’ve been training on the 3G. Because of my knee I can’t do that, so I’ve been in the gym.
“There were a few of us like that and it’s a shame not to be with the rest of the boys.
“But we did a bit of boxing during the week and it’s funny seeing Adam Webster doing that – he can’t fight at all. He’s terrible!
“Match fitness is totally different from training anyway, but I felt alright out there after the first 15 minutes and enjoyed it.”
Pompey were leading Burton through Jed Wallace’s first half opener, but were denied victory by a late Darragh Lenihan strike.
Dunne said: “We didn’t keep the ball well enough in the second half, but they still didn’t cause us many problems.
“Once we settled down early on, we popped the ball about and the interchanging between Matt Tubbs and Craig Westcarr was really good.
“I thought that, overall, we played really well – especially in the first half. It’s just a shame we couldn’t collect all three points.
“I suppose that we just need to take more of our chances when they present themselves.
“We had a few opportunities, but only took one. They had one decent chance and they took that.
“But we can still be proud of the way we played and we have to take that into the next game.
“Hopefully we can now put a bit of a run together because we’re not far off where we want to be.”