Plymouth boss’ view on Portsmouth’s lack of attacking threat as side end away ‘curse’ at Fratton

The Pilgrims head coach watched his team end their 20-game winless league run on the road, with a deserved 2-1 win at Fratton Park last night.

Muslic’s side grabbed their first maximum away from Home Park since last April, despite the Blues having over 80 per cent possession.

Pompey created very little for their dominance of the ball, however, with Plymouth keeper Conor Hazard required to make a single save before being beaten by Adil Aouchiche in the 89th minute. And Muslic felt Plymouth had enough threat going int the other direction to cause the home side problems.

He told Plymouth Live: ‘It felt almost like a curse because if you can't win for such a long time and it's football, you play so many games, it's heavy and it takes a lot of energy out of the team, but finally we could turn this trend and reward ourselves.

‘In the past we had good away performances, we were very close to beating Sunderland, and finally we could turn this into something very positive. From now on if we go away we have a chance to win and this is a good sign. We started tonight and we have to just continue and then everything is possible.

‘That was the spirit we needed, but we had this spirit over the last couple of weeks. The only thing we missed was this offensive threat, this transition threat, this goal threat.

‘Hardie was out and we missed somebody who could run in behind and being a threat. Tonight we had with Musa (Bundu), Obafemi and Hardie, three players very dangerous in transition.

‘Musa, Hardie and Obafemi had a good connection. We scored two beautiful transition goals and this is what we are all about, being strong defensively and not allowing a lot.

‘I think in open play we allowed almost nothing but having this attacking threat it's very much important so we can continue to defend pretty well. Hardie did his job tonight, together with Musa and Obafemi. I'm very delighted for all three of them.’

On top of Pompey not creating enough threat, they failed to look a significant danger through 11 minutes of stoppage time after Aouchiche’s finish set the game up for a grandstand finale. The Blues made bad decisions in that time, however, and failed to create any chances as Plymouth saw his team negotiate the period with relative ease.

Muslic added: ‘It feels brilliant. It (stoppage time) was also very much needed to give us this last proof of confidence that we can do it away. When the fourth official (John Busby) told me 11 minutes I knew we were going to make this, because we deserved it.’

YOUR NEXT POMPEY READ: Did you, your friends or family make it into our Pompey gallery under the Fratton lights last night?