Danny Cowley didn’t believe his Portsmouth side or Bristol Rovers deserved a penalty at Fratton Park as the Gas were beaten 3-1 on the south coast following two goals in the final 10 minutes for the hosts.
After Aaron Collins had cancelled out Connor Ogilvie’s opener, the game effectively turned on the decision by Gavin Ward to award Pompey a spot-kick in the 81st minute which Joe Pigott converted, with Owen Dale then adding a third in injury time.
After long deliberation, Ward adjudged Anderson to have caught Pigott as the striker attempted to pounce on James Belshaw’s parry, although the Rovers substitute did seem to get significant contact on the ball.
And what further frustrated Rovers manager Barton was when Collins appeared to be tripped by Joe Rafferty as he burst into the penalty area three minutes later, only for Ward to wave away the appeals, with the suspicion that the Gas forward had initiated the contact as opposed to being genuinely fouled.
“I didn’t think either were a penalty, but that’s just after a glimpse, I didn’t have a good view of either and that’s the honest truth,” Cowley said.
The Pompey boss also addressed the incident on the stroke of half-time as midfielder Louis Thompson was stretchered off, with oxygen and immediately taken to hospital after being fouled by Glenn Whelan right in front of the dugouts.
The Rovers midfielder was booked for the lunge, which was made worse as Thompson’s studs caught in the turf and such was the angle that the Pompey No23’s leg bent, it caused Cowley to turn away in horror with his hands on his head.
The crowd were incensed and felt Whelan deserved a red, with Barton then substituting the veteran at half-time, but Cowley didn’t want to attribute any blame for the nature of the challenge.
“I’m just worried about Louis, if I’m honest but I don’t want to get caught up in the tackle. Glenn Whelan is an excellent professional and I don’t think for one minute he meant to do it,” Cowley added. “Just really worried for Louis because he’s a really important person to our group, and a really important player.
“It was a nasty one. It looks to me like the tibia and fibula have… but sometimes you fear the worst in these moments. That’s our early concern.”
Although the penalty controversy at the end of the game delivered a sense of injustice for Rovers, in truth, Pompey made life difficult for themselves as they mustered 23 attempts on goal, seven on target, but couldn’t find the necessary breakthrough to stretch their advantage.
At 1-0, the Gas were always in the game as the hosts missed a number of chances, threatening to hand the initiative back to Barton’s team who did win the possession battle 53.3 per cent to 46.7 per cent.
“We were dominant and had good control in the game,” Cowley said. “They came here and they tried to play on the first line and be brave in possession and I thought we pressed them very, very well and that gave us a really good place in the game, in terms of territory and control.
“We had an awful lot of chances and weren’t ruthless enough. Credit to Bristol Rovers, I thought they kept going, never give in - and you expect that from a Joey Barton team and what he’s done in this calendar year, with that team, is amazing.
“At 70 minutes, you’re 1-1 and you need to show emotional control, stay on method and keep playing and we did that and managed to find the win.”
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