Danny Cowley: Why Portsmouth triumph over Morecambe has to be best win of our season so far

Marcus Harness and Connor Ogilvie netted in the 2-0 success over Morecambe as Pompey maintained the form which earned their boss November’s manager of the month.

Cowley’s men were not at their most fluent and suffered some lacklustre periods, yet still had enough to comfortably overcome the struggling visitors.

And with his squad still decimated by injuries and illness, he regards today as his favourite victory of the campaign so far.

The Blues head coach told The News: ‘For me, that’s our best win of the season when you consider how much has gone against us in the last 7-14 days.

‘We played our third game in a week with literally the same team. The 35-year-old Shaun Williams has played 270 minutes in the last week in the centre of midfield.

‘We also have a 19-year-old in Miguel Azeez playing his first three-game week in his (senior) career. Only we really know how much has gone against us and how difficult it has been.

‘So for the boys to show the resilience they have and to find a way of winning against Morecambe was brilliant – and, for that, it’s my favourite win of the season.

‘We had no opportunity to freshen it up and in the second half, I definitely felt we were feeling it, but we stuck together and showed the determination and the grit that you need. We are mentally tougher than we were.

‘We weren’t at our free-flowing best, but that's another clean sheet. It’s a 2-0 win against all the odds when so much has been going against us.’

The backbone behind the win was a fourth straight clean sheet in League One.

And Cowley was quick to praise Gavin Bazunu’s stunning save to deny Adam Phillips late in the game, when he pushed a thunderous attempt onto the bar.

He added: ‘Gavin made an unbelievable save from a shot from distance, but I didn’t think they really broke our defensive structure.

‘Gavin’s save was as good as I have seen live, it’s a brilliant save, and then he came and caught a couple of crosses. He’s just a class act.

‘But he knows more than anyone that it's an 11-man job to keep a clean sheet - and that’s 10 for us this season.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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