Portsmouth Football Club News

Tony Adams was a defender of the highest quality, earning plenty of trophies and plaudits as a centre-back for Arsenal and England. So it must pain him to watch the kind of rearguard errors that Pompey were making at Fulham. The first two goals they conceded in a 3-1 defeat at Craven Cottage were unforgivable. Both Andrew Johnson and Erik Nevland were left in acres of space to run at David James’ goal and leave the Blues keeper helpless. Nevland added a second when he was given all the time in the world to turn in the box and fire a neat shot into the bottom corner of James’ net. David Nugent’s goal was scant consolation for Pompey, although it at least gave the 3,000-plus travelling fans something to cheer about. With the Blues hovering just one point above the relegation places, Adams knows that the defending must improve. He said: “We made mistakes defensively. We gambled on a few offsides and tried to hold the line. “That’s disappointing because we worked hard during the week and showed them on video the way that Fulham play. “We were undone 15 minutes into the game and if you continue to make the mistakes that we’ve been making then you don’t win football matches. “Even if I’d have been a centre-forward, I would still be upset with some of our defending. “I’m not interested in bad refereeing or bad luck. I just worry about what we’re doing and try to control the controllables. “You just have to work on what you did poorly. We need to defend as a unit and be resilient and compact. “I’ll work on that during the week going into the Liverpool game.” Adams admits that it will be a relief when the transfer window shuts at 5pm on Monday and he can get back to concentrating solely on events on the pitch. He said: “It’s a tough period. I’ll be delighted when the transfer window closes because a lot of players’ heads get turned up and down the country. “It will be nice to go into the last 15 games with the window closed and get some team spirit to keep us in the division.” Fulham boss Roy Hodgson had some words of encouragement for Pompey, however and believes that they have enough quality in the squad to beat the drop. He said: “It wasn’t an easy game by any stretch of the imagination. Both teams were working hard to cancel each other out. “Tony Adams is in that unfortunate position where I found myself last season - the performances weren’t bad but the results were. “When the team plays as well as Pompey did, it’s hard to know how to deal with that. “There’s no magic wand in football. It’s all about quality and hard work and I got that from Johnson and Nevland. “Pompey are a good team and I’m sure that if they continue to play like that then they’re not going to keep losing.”

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