FA warning is Perrin penalty for mocking the referee

The Football Association is not issuing a statement on the matter after Perrin sarcastically applauded the referee Mark Clattenburg for booking the Danish defender Brian Priske in Portsmouth's 1-0 defeat. They will write to Perrin about his future behaviour but there will be no fine or touchline suspension - Clattenburg's decision to send Perrin to the stands was deemed an adequate punishment.

Pompey have won just three of 15 matches since Perrin was appointed in April, but Mandaric - who stormed out of Priestfield last week after the Carling Cup defeat to League One Gillingham - says the manager's job is not under threat. He has rebuked Perrin for his behaviour towards Clattenburg at Bolton but added: "Although we don't have the results we want, Alain Perrin still has my full support. There are a lot of British managers I could name who don't come close to him. I'm not the most patient guy in the world but you have to be realistic. This is not the time to make silly decisions and make silly mistakes. I'm not saying he doesn't have the job in two games' time but I'm not going to put a time on anything right now. I'm not overlooking results. As far as I'm concerned it is business as usual."

The coach Joe Jordan also insisted: "We are not doing too much wrong, looking at what happened at Bolton. We were beaten by a goal that, although brilliantly executed, we considered offside in the build-up.

"That's the kind of pressure Alain is under. It is not anything he said to the referee. It is the fact that he clapped his hands at a player being booked for taking a throw-in from the wrong place in a match in which players kick each other."

The full-back Andy Griffin, meanwhile, believes Pompey need more English players to be successful. But the former Newcastle defender backed Perrin's transfer policy by admitting: "He's had no choice but to look abroad."

Griffin thinks the inflated domestic transfer market priced Pompey out of the race for top-quality home-bred players. Yet while he is keen to get behind Perrin despite being left out of the last four games, he is convinced more home stars could get the team out of trouble. He added: "I'm not slamming the boss. All I believe is that, if the team haven't got any English players, it's not a good scenario. We have been starting with Gary O'Neil and Jamie Ashdown, which is positive as I think too many foreign players is not good for the state of English football."

Perrin brought in 12 new faces over the summer, none of whom are English, to take the tally to 20 different nationalities in a 30-man squad. Griffin added: "It is hard to expect all of them to adjust to a new environment all at once."

The Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce expects his striker Andy Cole to be in contention to face Everton at Eastlands on Sunday. The former England forward has missed City's past three games with a slight hamstring strain. During that time, City have lost three games in a week emphasising the 33-year-old's importance to Pearce's squad. With Robbie Fowler and Bradley Wright-Phillips also absent, Pearce has been left with a chronic shortage of attacking options and the decision to ask Antoine Sibierski to provide support to lone front man Darius Vassell has not met with much tangible success.

However, Pearce, who believes Cole will return to training later this week and could be ready to face David Moyes' basement boys at the weekend, said: "We are hoping to have Andy back this week."