Ipswich win - Cotterill ecstatic

Pompey travelled to Suffolk this afternoon and performed a 'smash and grab raid' on Ipswich Town. After weathering a spell of heavy pressure in the first half Pompey turned the tables and clinical finishing led to a 2-0 victory.

Four games, four wins and four clean sheets tell a story but Town manager Paul Jewell said: "If it was a boxing match they'd have called it off at half-time. That`s why this game drives you crazy because it`s all about sticking the ball in the net."

Pompey boss Steve Cotterill however told the official site how some constructive words at half-time had helped turn the game in Pompey`s favour.

Ruthless

He said: "It was a game of two halves. They were better than us in the first half and we were better than them in the second half.

They had some chances in the first half, but we were more ruthless and took ours in the second half.

They started better than us and came out of the traps well. They had a good foothold in the game and we were pleased to get to half-time goalless.

I told the lads at half-time that we had to stay very focused when they had the ball, because they have some very good players. So we had to be spot on with our concentration, and when we got our chances, we had to take them.

We also needed to stop a supply of crosses into our box from their right-hand side, which I think we did much better in the second half.

We dominated the ball after the interval and were very clinical.

David Nugent cut inside and it was a great strike into the far corner for his goal. It didn`t give their keeper, Marton Fulop, any chance.

Then he played an absolute peach of a pass for David Cotterill to score the second with a great finish. It was a really good, tough performance by our lads and an out-of-this-world result."

Cotterill said: "It`s pleasing to keep another clean sheet, but we've got another tough game on Tuesday at home to Scunthorpe and we've got to keep it going.

We can't go into the game expecting to win - we need our fans driving us on and rooting for us like they always do. We won't be taking anything for granted."

PUP

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