Portsmouth Football Club News

He was thrown straight into the firing line – but Martin Cranie wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. The 22-year-old defender returned from a loan spell at Charlton last Friday and was playing for Pompey the following day. And he put in an assured performance at right-back as the Blues began their FA Cup defence with a 0-0 draw against Bristol City at Fratton Park. Before the weekend, Cranie had made only three first-team appearances for Pompey after arriving from Southampton in the summer of 2007. But now he is back and looking to establish himself in the side under Tony Adams’ leadership. “The gaffer’s shown that he’s going to give the young guys a chance by playing me and Marc Wilson,” said the England under-21 international. “That’s shown me that I can get in the first team at Pompey. “I’ve gone out and got some experience. But now I’m back and hopefully I can get more of an opportunity. “Last season I wasn’t getting much of a chance, so I asked the gaffer if I could go on loan to QPR. “I was playing a few games there and getting some confidence and then I broke my leg and was out for about four months. “I got fit again for pre-season but I wasn’t getting a chance again so I went to Charlton and played around 20 games. “It was good experience. Obviously results weren’t going too well but it was good to play some first-team games. “I didn’t expect to be thrown straight into it at the weekend, but the gaffer called me on the Friday and said I was going to start. “I was obviously delighted. It was a great opportunity for me and I thought I equipped myself very well. “Playing first-team football is a lot different to playing for the reserves. You’re playing for something.” Cranie believes that Pompey can climb the table in the coming weeks – and that Adams is the right man to take the club forward. He said: “The gaffer’s done well. He’s got a lot on his shoulders but I think he’s handled it well. “I grew up as a centre-half and always wanted to play like Tony Adams. My older brother supported Arsenal so I followed him and went to watch them a few times. “I liked the way Tony played and tried to base my game on him. He was a great defender and won a lot of trophies. “I still like playing centre-back but if I’m picked at right-back then I’ll be happy to play there. “Obviously Glen Johnson is a very good player but if I can push him for a place in the team then I’ll be very happy. “With the quality of players we have here, we’ll climb the table no problem.” And Cranie hopes that Pompey can end a run of four successive Premier League defeats with victory against Manchester City at the weekend. He said: “We’ve seen that they’ve got a lot of money, but that doesn’t get you everything. “All the games they’ve won have been by a big margin but when they’ve played badly, they’ve played very badly, so hopefully we can catch them on an off day. “We’ve had a few bad results but the quality of the squad is brilliant and we want to get a win on Saturday and then push on from there.”

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