Brown Talks Portsmouth Victory

Manager Phil Brown has talked of his delight at the two one victory over Portsmouth on New Year’s Day and picked out midfielder Ryan Leonard for special praise.

Speaking to the BBC immediately after the match, Brown focused on giving his thoughts about the game itself, and said he felt we ‘just about’ deserved the victory given our performance, but he couldn’t deny that we ‘rode our luck’ during the 90 minutes and on another day the final result could well have turned out differently.

‘Dan Bentley produced one or two saves in the first half, but we got the goal at the right time, it probably killed their momentum a bit.’

Brown goes on to say that the lads within the squad are relishing the challenge ahead of them, and for the test that was Portsmouth he felt they responded admirably.

‘The guys in the dressing room have got so much belief in what we’re trying to achieve this year, they just get on with it.’

As for the brace from Leonard, the manager went into more detail when giving his after match comments to the Official Site.

Obviously Leonard grabbed the all important leveller on the stroke of half time, before adding the winning at the stroke of full time.

They do say football is about the fine margins!

‘Lenny was on the money, he’s come off in recent games but there was no way that was happening against Pompey.’

Brown says that one of his jobs as a gaffer is to assess players in terms of their form ‘on the day’ and try to make changes that will bring about a result, but it was clear to him that Leonard was up for this and was always going to produce something on the day that would get the crowd going, and not only did it once, but twice.

‘The injury can take the edge off your game, and the fitness levels drop, psychologically it has an effect too. But he was back to his best. We want him to reach those levels again when we take on Millwall.’

Our chances against a struggling Millwall side will certainly improve if he can replicate his one strike.