Forget Rangers and Liverpool - Steven Gerrard's turned up at Portsmouth to fire up League One promotion ambition

That’s the verdict of Andy Cannon, who has joked midfield partner Tom Naylor presently reminds him of the Liverpool legend.

Crewe on Saturday represented the third straight game that the Blues’ skipper has netted in, following Ipswich in the FA Cup and Plymouth.

Until his recent flurry, Naylor had scored six goals in 110 Pompey appearances after arriving in June 2018.

Now his own team-mate has drawn comparisons with former England man Gerrard, who registered 185 times for Liverpool.

Cannon laughed: ‘John has scored more than 100 goals in his career, Marcus and Ronan can score, while Naylor’s decided to be like Gerrard now and score goals!

‘We have the players, everyone can score.

‘I’ll just take the defensive role and let Nayls keep on scoring if he wants to!

‘I’m not bothered if I score as long as we are winning.

‘I’ve said it a number of times before, as long as the side keep on winning and I am in that team working hard, doing a thing to help, which the players can see, then I’m happy.

‘Listen, I’m not bothered about the limelight, or which of the players get it instead, I just want to work hard and get the team winning games.

‘We’re in it together and working hard for each other, it doesn’t surprise me we are scoring goals and winning games.’

In contrast to Naylor, Cannon has netted just once in 47 appearances for the Blues.

That arrived in February’s 3-1 win over MK Dons at Fratton Park, a match in which Marcus Harness and John Marquis also scored.

Cannon previously scored six times in 127 appearances at Rochdale, having come through the ranks.

Regardless, this is a Pompey team which appears full of goals from all positions since Kenny Jackett initiated a system change.

The midfielder added: ‘We have gone to the 4-4-2 and it seems to be working, everyone is happy, we are winning games and getting results. It’s obviously working.

‘You are playing with confidence, you can tell because it shows on the pitch and the way that you are.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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