Kenny Jackett praises Portsmouth for tough Oldham win

Posted Sunday, March 18, 2018 by PA

Portsmouth manager Kenny Jackett praised his players for handling the tough conditions after they earned a 2-0 win at Oldham.

Gale-force winds and heavy snow marred long periods of the match with play held up for almost 10 minutes while the pitch markings were cleared, but Pompey took the points with a double strike from Brett Pitman.

Their breakthrough came after 29 minutes when Connor Ronan crossed from the right and Pitman guided a fine header into the top corner.

The veteran was gifted his second 13 minutes later as Oldham keeper Johny Placide passed the ball straight to his feet inside the box. Pitman duly slotted in to notch his 17th goal of the season.

Jackett said: “I’m delighted with the result of course, but the conditions really were incredible at times.

“I think we saw all four seasons in an hour and a half of football.

“It was the same for both sides, though, and I thought we adapted really well and much better than Oldham.

“It went from blizzard to sunshine, and then back to blizzard again, but credit to the lads. They came through it and secured a really important victory.

“We defended well and restricted Oldham to very few chances. I think that’s a first clean sheet since December, so I’m really happy about that.

“We had further chances to score after the weather eased off, but overall I was so pleased with the performance.

“It was a great, hard-earned win for us and Brett Pitman came up with an excellent header for his first goal.

“The opportunity was just there for his second goal. He still had work to do once he got the ball, but he did that and well done to him.”

Oldham manager Richie Wellens said: “The conditions were really difficult for both sets of players.

“We were trying to play neat passing football when Portsmouth were clearing it long and trying to force mistakes from us.

“We had highlighted Pitman before the game because he’s one of the league’s top scorers, but then we left him free as a bird to score the first goal.

“I would have been happy with 1-0 at half-time because then we could have played to the conditions ourselves, but the second goal was a killer and a really poor one to concede.

“I like us to play out from the back, but our keeper should have just cleared it up the pitch.

“In the second half, with the snow storm, the conditions were pretty farcical.

“I can’t be too hard on the players, but we lacked the quality to sustain many attacks.”