Cotterill reflects on beating the Canaries

Pompey recorded an 8th league win of the season at the weekend, which is more than we managed in the whole of last season!

This win, when we rode our luck at times by the sounds of it, was an impressive one at the high flying canaries that made it back-to-back wins on the road after we beat Swansea in our previous game, remembering that the Burnley home game was called-off.

The 2-0 win at Carrow Road took us onto 28pts for the season so far and Steve Cotterill was, as you would expect - and rightly so, more than happy and is looking for us to build on this: 'Norwich have been on a fine run of form so it's a really big win for us. We're delighted to get to 28 points at this stage of the season.

'We've had two fantastic wins on the road at Swansea and Norwich and now we`d like to build on that with our home form.

'They were the better team in the first half but in the second half we were. They played a diamond formation against us, which can be difficult to deal with. There was one side of their diamond that was posing us problems. We kept getting done in one area.'

We took a bit of a battering - again from the sounds of it and what I was told, I was not at the game and could not follow it at all - in the 1st half although a change of formation at half time, having 'assessed' the situation, turned the game in our favour: 'I waited until half-time to change things around because I needed to explain to the players what I wanted.

'You look at the strengths and weaknesses of other sides and then adapt accordingly. We knew we had to change our formation. And when we changed it after the break we didn't get done again in the area of the pitch where we had had a problem.

'We went to 4-3-3 and David Nugent wide on the right was a real threat to them. We felt if our front three got higher up the pitch we could cause them a bit of a problem in the second half.'

Dave Kitson's goal, a first in some time - 2-months in fact - WAS needed, set us on the road to victory and Cotterill said that this made all the difference to his game: 'Dave Kitson needed a goal. He's had a lean period, and as a goalscorer that drags you down. Hopefully that goal will be give him a real lift.

'Any team wants their strikers scoring goals and for a little while he's had a bit of a bad spell, so we're delighted for him. Once David Nugent's cross came over for him I knew he would score.

'And after the goal everything about his game was better, which shows scoring has already had a positive effect.'

LOTS of credit must go to Dave Nugent who went on a fantastic run to set-up the first goal, in fact it was his run that also won the penalty for our 2nd. The guy has been in top form recently, long may this continue...

So, next up it is Scunthorpe, bring them on.

A win at Fratton this weekend and we go into the hectic Xmas period bang in form and in very high spirits!

PLAY UP POMPEY!

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