Defeat at Shrewsbury was a disappointing way to go into Christmas. However, Pompey responded positively, bouncing back, with a Fratton Park win over Wimbledon on Boxing Day.
Ben Close, having scored his first goal for Pompey earlier in the season, opened the scoring when putting the Blues ahead from outside of the box, finishing past Wimbledon goalkeeper George Long – his first at Fratton.
Wimbledon, with the games first penalty, drew level when Lyle Taylor scored from the spot.
A win was secured when a push on Brett Pitman was spotted, giving the Pompey captain a chance to win it from the penalty spot. The forward, fresh from a miss from 12 yards recently, made no mistake to get the Blues back to winning ways and just goal difference outside of the play off.
Commenting post match, quoted by the News, Kenny Jackett was pleased with a hard fought win.
He said: ‘As the game wore on I felt we opened up more, played more constructive football and basically had more chances and more shots. It was hard-fought, we got in front twice and saw it out the second time. I thought both were penalties, they were the key moments and the key decisions.’
Responding positively to the Shrewsbury defeat, Jackett is now looking for more against Northampton to end the year then another at Bristol Rovers to start the next.
Jackett added: ‘It’s a good way to bounce back from a defeat and, looking at the Christmas period as a whole, we can look forward now to Northampton, very quickly followed by Bristol Rovers on Monday.’
PLAY UP POMPEY
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2017-18 Prediction League – December
Northampton (h) Saturday 30th December 2017 – click here.
2017-18 Prediction League – January
Bristol Rovers (a) Saturday 1st January – click here.
Chelsea (h) Tuesday 9th January – click here.
Scunthorpe (a) Saturday 13th January – click here.
Rotherham (h) Saturday 20th January – click here.
Shrewsbury (h) Saturday 27th January – click here.
