Appy: Players still hurting after Wycombe debacle

The Wycombe humiliation had gone, consigned to the history books and best left forgotten.

Yet the players were still hurting.

It was back to training yesterday for the first time since that abject 3-1 defeat at Fratton Park.

Adam Webster was given an extra day to recover but the rest of those involved turned up at Eastleigh following Wednesday’s rest day.

Appleton wanted a response – he hoped they wouldn’t let him down.

On this occasion, he wasn’t disappointed.

And the Pompey boss is confident they will give a good reaction in tomorrow’s visit of Crewe.

He said: ‘The response from the players has been unbelievable.

‘Maybe that is because the way I went about things in training.

‘The tone of my voice was a little bit stronger and higher.

‘They knew I wanted to get a reaction and get it out of our system very, very quickly – and I think we did do.

‘There were some serious challenges flying in in training yesterday morning which says to me they are going to be ready for the game tomorrow.

‘Young people like Adam need to switch off and that is why we gave him an extra day yesterday to recharge the batteries.

‘But the way the rest of them trained was fantastic. I couldn’t ask for any more.

‘They are hurting. Nobody likes to lose a game of football, nobody likes to lose a game of football at home and they just saw it as a missed opportunity.

‘It was a mad opening 17 minutes. They (Wycome) could have been three or four up –that’s how crazy it was.

‘Then, after that, I cannot remember Simon Eastwood having a save to make.

‘We worked on a few things yesterday morning that Crewe might do and what we have to do and got a really good response.

‘The tempo was as high as it has been for weeks. You could tell people were hurting.’