Pompey are now ‘up and running’, we have collected our first 3pts of the season and the 1-0 win over Reading was much deserved, and Steve Cotterill knew as much.
As he told The Pompey Site the margin of victory, in a game he knew would be ‘tight’, should have been greater but he was ‘buzzing’ to get the win and the performance given: ‘we knew it was going to be a tight game because Reading are a good team, but with the chances we created 1-0 might have flattered them a little bit.
‘I thought we were good all around. Our work-rate was exceptional. The only time I got edgy was when the board went up for five extra minutes at the end, because it would have been so unjust if we hadn’t won the game.
‘That win will give us good confidence. As bad as we were against Barnet, as good as we were against Reading. We’re back up in the top half of the table, where we want to be. I’m pleased for the owners and I’m pleased for the fans.
‘Deep down inside I’m buzzing with our performance, but we’ve got to make sure we keep a lid on it, because it’s only one game. There’s still plenty of work to be done.’
I, and not just because we won – which helps of course, really enjoyed that game, fantastic result and a really good match.
Few, if they are totally honest, would deny that PFC deserved to win that game – it ‘could’ and ‘should’ have been by a greater margin though and as we dropped ‘deeper and deeper’ as the game wore on I feared déjà vu…
Luckily though we saw it through!
Of match-winner Dave Kitson, who had a clear-cut chance in the 1st half but failed to take it – he was not alone in this to be fair, Cotterill added this: ‘Kits had a chance in the first half which he knows he could have taken a bit quicker. I just felt then he dipped a little bit before half-time by staying out of the box.
‘We needed to make sure at half-time that we told him to get back into the box again, because a goal will eventually come if you`re in the box. And in the second half he got his reward.
‘The difference for Kits tonight was that he worked his socks off, and that’s why he got his goal. Our fans will accept him missing chances, what they don’t accept is when he doesn’t quite work hard enough.
‘But with that performance he’s set himself a benchmark.’
I could not agree more with Cotterill there!
Missing chances, as frustrating as it is, is something I can, have and will accept from anyone if they ‘work their socks off’ and this is something Kitson has been guilty of, missing but not working hard enough, but to be fair he ‘seems’ to be putting in much more of a shift this season.
That my friend is the ‘benchmark’, live up to that and his future with the club ‘might’ still be as bright as his hair…
Cracking win, cracking night now lets not let this go to waste at the weekend eh! Bristol City will not be ‘easy’ of course, although they are ‘there for the taking’ so lets go there and offer up the same again and look to get a little run going.
Wins breed confidence, confidence helps a club to grow and a club that starts to grow again is one that becomes much more ‘attractive’ to potential player recruits…
PLAY UP POMPEY!
Frippy’s Virtual Bookies – link to update here.
