Jackett: Good '“ but Pompey must do better

The Blues delivered a flying first 45 minutes performance to put MK Dons to the sword at Fratton Park.

That saw Jackett’s side move up to eighth place in League One – a single point off the play-offs.

Despite seeing the promise from his troops, the Pompey manager highlighted there was plenty he wasn’t satisfied with from the display.

Jackett wanted more from his team’s first-half dominance and felt the Blues offered the visitors a route back into the game conceding some sloppy free-kicks.

He said: ‘For the amount of domination we had, I thought we should have had more shots.

‘But I can’t complain too much, we’ve scored two goals.

‘That put us in a strong position to win the game attacking our end.

‘In the second half, I felt we were a little impatient defending against some big lads.

‘There were physical tussles we shouldn’t have got involved in and it invited a lot of free-kicks into our box.

‘It didn’t cost us, though, and we defended our box very, very well.

‘They didn’t get the strikes in the second period.

‘But we could have been more patient in terms of defending our box and giving free-kicks away.

‘Our first pass out of defence needed to be a little more precise and efficient.

‘If we could have done that then we’d have got our balls into wide areas, which is our strength.

‘We could have alleviated the pressure that way and gone on to score more goals.’

Despite Jackett’s reservations, he can see the different elements of his team beginning to come together.

Curtis Main may have added his name to Pompey’s injury list, but the Fratton Park boss can only see the side getting stronger.

‘The side’s settling down.

‘Curtis Main has a frustrating injury,’ Jackett said.

‘But it fell well for us because Burgess has come back and Hawkins has gone up front.

‘But our starting line-up is looking strong and we’re starting to settle into a nice pattern on and off the ball.

‘It’s a pattern where we can work to get better with the same group of players.’

Pompey set an early pace against MK Dons, which Jackett wants to see maintained in matches.

Oli Hawkins’ opener was the first time the Blues have scored inside the first 30 minutes this term.

That’s a stat Jackett wants to see improve.

He added: ‘We’d want to be, particularly at home, taking the game to teams.

‘We want to be playing good football and getting the ball into wide areas – and then playing from there.

‘So there’s a lot of build on and, as the side settles, we can steadily improve.

‘We can create competition, add where we need to and keep building as a force in a good division.

‘Even MK Dons had a number of good players on the bench and we knew the players coming from the sidelines would be a threat for us.

‘Each side we go up against have good squads.’