Portsmouth belief uncovers Birmingham loanee Steve Seddon's hidden dead-ball talents

Kenny Jackett has credited the Birmingham loanee with ramping up the danger posed by Pompey’s centre-halves from set-pieces.

Praise indeed for the 22-year-old, who previously hadn’t been entrusted with corners and free-kicks at his parent club or loan spells at Stevenage and AFC Wimbledon.

It was Seddon’s free-kick which carved out the winner at Bolton last weekend – Sean Raggett connecting with a header before Christian Burgess finished after an initial save from the keeper.

Meanwhile, his corner at Fleetwood was headed back by Burgess and finished at close range by John Marquis for the decider.

Suddenly, the talented full-back has added dead-ball delivery excellence to his armoury.

Seddon said: ‘I haven’t taken them at other clubs, to be fair.

‘At Stevenage and Wimbledon I took a couple now and again, but was never really placed on set-pieces as such.

‘To be fair, when I came in at both those places, they had players already trusted to that role and were very cemented.

‘I have done a bit in the past, but usually it’s left up to the attackers.

‘I’m very happy with it, it’s great to feel the belief from the manager that I can do that sort of thing because over the last six months at Birmingham all I wanted was belief from the manager.

‘This manager has obviously given me it and I am thankful for it.

‘A strength of my game has always been crossing, I want to get forward from left-back and put crosses in, to make things happen as well as the defensive side.

‘It’s working out well and I’m enjoying it. Obviously I can still make deliveries better, which I’m going to try to do as much as I can.’

Pompey have won all four matches Seddon has so far appeared in.

And they host Barnsley in the FA Cup on Saturday.

He added: ‘With dead-balls, I aim for areas and if it is overhit or underhit you’d hope one or two of the lads move into those areas just in case that happens.

‘Sometimes if I put a bad ball in, they make it a good ball!’