Kenny Jackett brushes aside Portsmouth’s defeat to Gillingham
Posted Sunday, October 07, 2018 by PA
Portsmouth manager Kenny Jackett revealed that his side are already talking about going on another unbeaten run.
They had gone 11 games without defeat prior to Gillingham’s visit to Fratton Park but were on the receiving end of a shock 2-0 defeat.
The visitors got both their goals in the first half with striker Tom Eaves finishing emphatically before Alex Lacey sealed the win.
But Jackett insisted that his Pompey team are ready to go again.
He said: “When you do get going and get momentum, it’s a big thing.
“The players are talking about going on another run and bouncing back as it wasn’t our day.
“I feel that there are certain things we need to do better to learn from this.
“We can’t sweep the things that went wrong today under the carpet as you won’t get better doing that. We need to take more responsibility in situations like this going forward.
“Within a short space of time after the game we covered all bases and spoke about starting again next week.
“We didn’t work their goalkeeper enough for the amount of ball that we had which was the feature of the game, but fair to play to Gillingham for a resolute display.”
Pompey were sluggish from the outset and in the opening exchanges Gabriel Zakuani’s shot zipped along the soaking wet surface causing Craig MacGillivray to fumble.
Gillingham’s star striker Eaves broke the deadlock in the 26th minute with an exquisite piece of skill.
The frontman controlled the ball on his chest with his back to goal before swivelling and firing an effort into the roof of the net.
And the away side doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time when Pompey switched off at a corner and Lacey rifled home unchallenged.
However, Jackett laid into his Portsmouth team during the interval and they came out firing.
But the visitors defended heroically for large periods of the second half which saw them block a number of shots from Jamal Lowe, Ronan Curtis and Brett Pitman.
And Gillingham manager Steve Lovell hailed his defensive unit before gushing over Eaves’ first-half strike.
Lovell said: “Portsmouth came out in the second half and put some pressure on us but we defended really well.
“We worked on our defensive plan all week and it paid off today.
“And Eaves’ goal was brilliant. He had in his mind exactly what he was going to do and he did it quite magnificently.
“Apart from the goal he scored, he worked his socks off up front and didn’t stop working hard.
“The same as Alex Lacey with the second goal. It was a great finish which came at the perfect time.”
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