Iain Dowie feels he can take plenty of positives despite seeing the Tigers slip to a 3-2 defeat at Portsmouth in his first game as temporary Football Management Consultant.

Two goals from Caleb Folan, who was making his first City appearance since August, looked set to hand Dowie's side three points but two goals in the final two minutes saw Portsmouth grab an unlikely win.

"In some ways, I have to feel for the lads," said Dowie.

"It's a kick in the stomach, but in the cold light of day I can look back and take a lot of positives from the game.

"We have to take the positives. We've got eight cup finals left, or eight rounds of a boxing match, and we have to make sure we go toe-to-toe and see it out.

"We were spirited on Saturday and the fans will have seen that. The players stopped crosses, made tackles and passed the ball nicely at times.

"There were chances. We hit the post early on and we certainly didn't go there to shut up shop. We said we would play attacking football and we did."

Despite the eventual defeat, Dowie was pleased with how striker Folan responded having been handed a start.

With injuries to Jozy Altidore and Amr Zaki, Dowie turned to Folan after being impressed with his attitude in training and the man in charge was delighted to see him take his chance.

"I had a feeling about him on Thursday because he did very well in training. I decided to put him in the squad and then he ended up playing because we lost Amr Zaki and Jozy Altidore with knee and hamstring injuries.

"Caleb's pitched up with a couple of goals and I'm delighted for him. He's got a lot of raw athleticism and he just has to believe the powers he has."

Saturday saw Andy Dawson add to City's injury list when he was forced to come off during the second half, but Dowie is hopeful it will only be a short-term problem.

"It looks like a tight hamstring. He'll probably have it scanned on Tuesday but hopefully he won't be out for too long."

See the full interview with Iain Dowie on TIGERS Player now.