Appy Says! Crawley reaction

It was not always pretty, but it was eventually effective and in the end we completed a 'comfortable' 3-0 over 9-man Crawley on Sunday afternoon.

Appy, as he told The Pompey Site, admits that victory - by any means - was the order of the day at the weekend!

And finally we did get something, and some luck, when we might not have thus far this season: 'we've performed reasonably well in recent weeks without getting the results that we've deserved.

'So we're delighted to get the three points. Before the game we said that no matter how we played, we had to win.'

Pompey took over Crawley on Sunday afternoon, some 1,600 of us converging on the town. That is a pretty impressive amount from a crowd of a little over 5,000 overall, Crawley's highest ever attendance.

This win gives us, the fans, a lift too with Appy pleased for us fans to get a win as much as anything: 'it gives everyone a lift - including the fantastic fans who never stopped singing for us.

'The fans deserve some good news after everything they've been through and we're delighted we could provide some for them.'

A 'patient approach' was going to be needed when Crawley went down to 10-men, and we did this.

Once they went down to 9-men it was surely only a matter of time before we were able to break through, and when we did others followed.

Going 'gung-ho' is not something that he wanted us to do so this patience, and discipline, has also been praised: 'we showed great discipline - especially when Crawley went down to 10 and nine men.

'I'd have to look back at the decisions, but once you get booked you're always running the risk of getting sent off.

'The opposition with 10 men will work their socks off, but eventually someone will lose their concentration and you'll get a chance. We had to be patient and take our chances when they came.'

Had Crawley remained with 10-men, if I am honest, I am not sure we would have broken through?

Although the likelihood was always going to be that if we scored once others would follow...

That 'patience' certainly paid off for the opening goal as we took plenty of time to work the ball across from left to right eventually getting it out to Adam Webster, who had been free and calling for it for an age, who put in a great ball for Ashley Harris to finish well.

Wins breed confidence, we got the one previously - albeit a shootout win - against Bournemouth and now we have followed this up with our first official win of the season to get us our first 3pts of it.

In theory we should now be able to build on this...

PLAY UP POMPEY!

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