Sweet as a nut

Dave Nugent once again showed how frustrating a footballer he is at the weekend.

A moment of brilliance, with a fantastic strike at the death, ensured we collected - what was looking an unlikely - a point against Derby.

It was that effort, which was top class, and another solo run prior to that which showed what we know he can do.

The problem is he produces this in dribs and drabs and then can make the simple things, at least what should be simple, look so hard!

A one-on-one in the 1st half - granted I am no professional footballer, but surely he just had to open his body and slot it into the bottom right hand corner although he went for the bottom left - really should have produced a goal and another effort on the turn in the 2nd 'probably' should have gone closer...

Nugent, as he told The Pompey Site, knew we were 'terrible' in the 1st half and got a 'deserved rollicking' during the interval, although having come out 'all guns blazing' in the 2nd we just could not score.

This left him thinking it would be 'one of those days' although his effort that was sweet as a nut ensured we got a point.

He know he should have done better with a previous effort, but having got this one is now looking to kick on: 'we thought it was going to be one of those days but I caught one sweetly in the end and it's gone straight in the top corner, so I'm happy.

'I had one chance in the first half that the defender poked wide and another one where I should have scored in the second half but finally it all came together.

'It's my first goal for a while now and I just need to keep on going. I'm on nine now and want to get into double figures.'

He now hopes that we can take some confidence from this point and climb away from the bottom 3, who all lost at the weekend, starting by getting a result against Doncaster next weekend.

As ever Nugent was a willing runner, although I have to say that as much as he is winning me over this season - I was still VERY unhappy with his thoughts towards us fans upon his departure for his loan with Burnley for a long time - he continues to show, for me, that this is 'probably' his level, a lower end of the premier league at best.

The guy is not consistent enough for the top flight and unless he takes a dramatic pay cut, as much as I think I would want him to stay, there is still no way that I can see him being here beyond the end of the season when his contract ends.

I know these 'contract negotiations' do drag on, although if a new deal was going to be arranged I reckon it would have been done by now...

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