Jackett relieved to come away with three points

Posted Wednesday, January 02, 2019 by PA

Portsmouth manager Kenny Jackett was indebted to Ronan Curtis after the Irishman’s late goal fired the League One leaders to a scrappy 2-1 win over struggling Wimbledon.

Curtis struck 10 minutes from time to break Wimbledon’s hearts after Kwesi Appiah’s superb long-range goal had threatened to steal a point.

Jackett said: “It was tough and you don’t win games of football easily.

“In the first half I did think we deserved our lead, controlled it quite well. Perhaps with the balls we had around their box and in the wide areas we didn’t put the ball in with enough quality.

“They got on top of us slightly in midfield and scored a fantastic goal from Appiah, great strike that there was nothing my keeper could do about it.

“The sign of a good team is you respond and find a winner and we did that with an excellent header from Curtis.

“Even when Wimbledon did come back in to the game we had a few chances, We did look like we needed one of them chances to go in to give us some momentum in the second half.”

Pompey were by far the better team in the the first half and the south coast side took the lead after only eight minutes.

Wimbledon goalkeeper Tom King found a Curtis shot from the edge of the penalty area too hot to handle and Jamal Lowe buried the rebound.

The hosts should have been further ahead when Appiah levelled with a 30-yard screamer 15 minutes from time.

But Pompey had the last say when Millwall loanee Ben Thompson crossed for Curtis to head the winner five minutes later.

Wimbledon manager Wally Downes said: “’We had some ineffective defending for the second goal so it’s disappointing for the players because they worked hard to get themselves back in to the game and to give a goal away the way we did was disappointing.

“I said they had to believe themselves a little bit more and take the game to Portsmouth. We were in the game and I felt we could play better and be more for virile in our approach and I thought we were in the second half.’

“The boys must realise they need to believe in themselves more. I told them we came here to win not try and nick a point and sit back and I thought in the first half we could have done a lot better on the football.

“I said they’ve got to play better and I think they did used the ball better attacked in more dangerous areas and I was proud of them in the second half.”