Portsmouth Football Club News

Tony Adams is looking forward to 3pm this Saturday afternoon. It will mark his first match at Fratton Park as manager of the Blues. But as excited as he is, he is also aware of the threat posed by Wigan’s frontline. He said: “They’ve are strong up front. “Emile’s playing out of his skin at the moment, especially for his country. “On his day he is a real destroyer. “He’s a fantastic man and a fantastic player and he will be very dangerous I’m sure.” Of course, the Latics are not the only men with a potent strike-force. Their defenders will be well briefed on Pompey’s own dynamic duo – Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe, who is likely to return to the starting 11 after dropping to the bench for the Blues 1-0 defeat at Anfield midweek. “Someone has said they thought it was a brave decision, but it didn’t seem that way to me,” Adams revealed. “It was a football decision. There are lots of facets to this job when it comes to making decisions like that - with ‘J’ it was tactical. “We hadn’t been doing well away from home so I changed things – we didn’t get a result at Liverpool but I think we did alright. “I just feel it was a normal decision and Jermain was 100% about it. “He knows how much I love him and I don’t think he had a problem with that. He understood it. “I’m not mad - Jermain Defoe is a fantastic player and he is going to score goals. “He’s going to play – I don’t think it’s giving anything away. He’s one of my tools and he is one of the tools that are going to keep me in a job!” Looking from the pitch to the dugout, and Adams admitted he had a lot of admiration for his opposite number at Wigan – even if Steve Bruce did cause him no end of grief when they played against each other. “I have a lot of respect for Steve Bruce. “I think he’s a good coach, a good manager. And he was a fantastic player. “I remember when George Graham brought me off after 20 minutes in a game where I let Steve go for a corner. He was very good at set plays and he got his head on the ball and scored. “George never let me forget it - every time we played Manchester United he would say ‘mark Steve Bruce’. “But I think he got one from Alan Smith as well, from a long throw, and he got killed for it. I suppose I should be grateful because it meant he forgot about me. “But Steve did a fantastic job for Alex Ferguson and I want those kind of characters in my team. “He was a great professional and I expect his teams to be the same - fighters and winners. I’m expecting a very tough game.”

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