Town boss Paul Jewell admitted his side were “hopeless” during their 1-0 home victory over Portsmouth. However, the Blues manager was pleased that his team showed resilience and is starting to grab points when not playing well.
Jewell said: "I think anyone who saw the game here last year will remember that we murdered Portsmouth but lost 2-0. But tonight we were basically hopeless, weren’t we?
"I said to them at half-time that if you’re going to be successful in football, you’ve got to get something out of games when you don’t play well, and Portsmouth were the better team in all areas tonight, let’s have it right.
"But we kept working at it, had a little bit of luck and desire or whatever got us through. If you’re going to be a decent team, you’ve got to win games when you don’t play well.”
The Blues boss says his side haven’t always got what they deserved from games earlier this season: "We played really well at Middlesbrough and drew, really well at Cardiff and drew. Tonight we were second best and we won 1-0. That’s why this game drives you mad.
"As daft as it sounds, 0-0 would have been a good result for us tonight. They’re two bonus points for us because we weren’t very good.”
Jewell had praise for Pompey’s display: "I think sometimes you have to give the opposition credit. I thought Portsmouth played well. They’re big and strong, and they’re very dangerous from set plays.
"They caused us problems all over the pitch, although for all the corners and freekicks they had, Stocky’s only had two real saves to make.
"We started off OK in the first couple of minutes, but after that we looked a little bit edgy, it was like a performance from last year almost. We rode our luck and we’ve come through with the three points.
"Sometimes as a manager games like that are as satisfying as when you play well. If we play like that on Saturday we’ll get beaten, but at least it gives us confidence that when we’re not at our best, we can dig in, get some blocks in and win ugly. I’ve said before, we’re an ugly team, so we should be able to win ugly.”
Portsmouth caretaker-manager Guy Whittingham believed his team ought to have won comfortably: "I think that’s probably the best 90 minutes we’ve played all season.
"We knew it was going to be tough with Ipswich not having lost in five, having won three and drawn two, and playing well with goals all over the pitch.
"The lads knew what kind of game it was going to be, we had a game plan and it worked well — all apart from scoring goals.”
Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk