Danny Cowley: Bolton win was Portsmouth's most important three points of the season

Danny Cowley hailed Pompey’s return to winning ways and insisted: That was our most important three points of the season.
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John Marquis’ second-half strike over Bolton presented the Blues with only a second victory in their last 14 outings in all competitions.

It also arrived at Fratton Park, which witnessed an abject 4-0 hammering at the hands of Ipswich in the previous home fixture.

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Since that awful display, Cowley’s men have taken four points from two matches to signify an encouraging response.

Danny Cowley pinpointed a 1-0 win over Bolton as Pompey's most crucial of the season so far. Picture: Joe PeplerDanny Cowley pinpointed a 1-0 win over Bolton as Pompey's most crucial of the season so far. Picture: Joe Pepler
Danny Cowley pinpointed a 1-0 win over Bolton as Pompey's most crucial of the season so far. Picture: Joe Pepler

And Cowley was delighted to see his side continue promising momentum from that season low.

He told The News: ‘We will be more free flowing than probably what we were against Bolton, but probably they are the most important three points of our season after the run that we’ve been on.

‘We were brilliant defensively, which is something we’ve been working on all week.

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‘Defending is an 11-man job and Johnny Marquis was certainly our first defender. I thought we did a really good job in that area.

‘Once we scored in the second half it gave us the confidence that we needed. Sometimes that happens when you’ve been in the place that we’ve been in.

‘The last time out at Fratton Park (Ipswich) we know we let people down and when you let the people down that are close to you then that’s hard.

‘We have rightly taken a lot of criticism and that does affect confidence. Confidence is a fragile commodity, as we know, but certainly after we scored we looked a much more confident team.

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‘We actually played well in the second half against a very good Bolton team and probably should have made it easier for ourselves by finding a second goal.’

The Blues have now lifted themselves up to thirteenth in League One as their recovery continues.

Next they host Cheltenham on Tuesday night, a side presently three places below in the table.

Cowley added: ‘This is the reaction we wanted. We played better last week at Accrington, that’s for sure, but didn’t find the win.

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‘It depends how you judge performances, I suppose, because we played better offensively last week, but defensively played much better today.

‘You have to be careful because sometimes you come off and just judge a game on what we do from an attacking perspective.

‘But defensively we did really well against a good Bolton team. They had some shots from distance, but hardly any in our area.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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