Portsmouth goal hero's belief over new signings as he delivers squad warning

And the defender is hopeful that reinforcements will soon arrive to bolster the Blues options, after his match-winning opening-day effort at Fleetwood.

Brown stepped up with the decisive goal in the 1-0 success at Highbury Stadium, in front of 1,092 travelling fans.

The lack of depth of Danny Cowley’s squad was exposed before the game, as Shaun Williams was injured in the warm-up - leaving one fit senior midfielder in Ryan Tunnifcliffe.

He was replaced by Connor Ogilvie, who played 90 minutes in a central position he’s never operated in before in his career.

Brown feels that shows the need for new faces, especially with Pompey facing a busy opening period of five games in 15 days.

He said: ‘I think we need more depth.

'It sounds like we’re close to a few, but I don’t know exactly when they are going to happen.

‘We’ll see what happens in the next couple of days, but it’s obvious that we need some more depth to the squad.

‘If you think you can get through the season with about 14 senior players, you need to think again.

‘People aren't silly, they know we’re not going to be able to do that.’

Brown’s 60th-minute goal was the difference as he smashed in an unstoppable angled drive fromTunnicliffe’s ball in.

After his two goals at AFC Wimbledon at the end of last season, that made it three in three for the 30-year-old - a return he’s naturally pleased with.

‘I’m prolific!’ Brown joked. ‘To be honest, I just shut my eyes and smashed it!

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‘If you keep getting in positions and hit the target you’ve got a chance.

‘It’s great to be scoring and as long as it helps the team to get a result I’ll be happy.

‘I don’t really care who scores, to be honest. It’s not overly my job, but it’s good to chip in now and again.’

Pompey had to endure a first half battering against Simon Grayson’s side, before Brown’s key intervention.

Despite being well short of their best, the former Bristol Rovers man felt Cowley’s men showed they have different qualities in their arsenal.

He added: ‘The back five had to earn their money in the first half.

‘It was just about giving us a chance for the second half.

‘I felt we did look very leggy in the first half, and there was factors behind the scenes for that. So it was about grinding it out.

‘We weren’t great and it was about finding a way to overcome it.

‘We’re not going to be perfect, but we found a way.

‘It’s good to come away and win football matches in different ways, but we certainly can’t carry on performing in that way.

‘If anyone has watched us in pre-season they know how we play.

‘That wasn’t us and people who have watched us enough have seen that.

‘It is what it, but you have to overcome different challenges - and we did that.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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