Wycombe 1-3 Pompey: Jon Harley's post-match verdict

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey assistant head coach Jon Harley speaks to The News after the Blues' 3-1 win at Adams Park

Transcript

00:00 So with John Harley after Pompey beat Wickham 3-1, first of all John, why are you doing

00:05 press this afternoon?

00:06 I do think you know that, obviously, well John actually is available to do the press

00:12 but he said he'd requested for me to do it this afternoon just because of the way the

00:18 game went so he took a back step for this one.

00:21 Of course he's suspended from the dugout today isn't he, so you took that charge of that

00:25 side of the game.

00:26 Yeah so obviously the three bookings which is quite difficult to not pick up over the

00:31 course of a season but yeah he was away from being in the technical area today but it didn't

00:36 really affect anything, the communication we had was pretty straightforward and just

00:42 got a different perspective of the game but he was able to come down to the changing room

00:45 before half time, obviously after the game as well so it didn't really change a great

00:51 deal, it just wasn't allowed in the technical area.

00:54 What do you make of the game?

00:55 So obviously the start was excellent, it's really interesting I think this stage of the

01:02 season is clearly the business end and the key thing is just to get three points, if

01:07 we can do it with the performance end then that's great as well.

01:11 I think performance wise maybe first half it did feel a little bit flat so going in

01:15 at half time the key message to the whole group was to try and create a little bit more

01:21 energy because it wasn't the level that we wanted to be at and the other one was we know

01:27 when we come here we're going to have to stand up and we're going to have to fight at times

01:32 so just simple things like your tackle is in the middle of the pitch, a real simple

01:36 message but we have to win them.

01:39 In the second half the character of the group, everyone stepped up and they did that and

01:43 I think we saw the game out pretty comfortably the last 20 minutes or so so yeah overall

01:49 we're very happy.

01:52 Amir Kamara was on play wasn't he?

01:55 Abz has been, his form recently has been outstanding, he's such a great lad, wants to learn, really

02:04 humble but yeah when he's putting in performances like that, the key thing, the way we play

02:10 we want to try and isolate him 1v1 because as a full back myself I would hate to play

02:15 against him and I'm sure every full back is in that position so he can go outside,

02:22 he can come inside and he's got end product now which is again credit to him, something

02:27 he's really been working on, he's really improved on as the season's progressed but yeah he's

02:32 excellent, outstanding for us and hopefully this can continue for the remainder of the

02:37 season at least.

02:38 3 assists as well?

02:40 Yeah, it doesn't surprise us, it's part of how we play it, I think especially having

02:48 Zac behind him, they combined really well, I thought Zac did really well also, yeah on

02:55 that side of the pitch we were really effective, it was just one of those games where if you're

03:02 having a lot of success in one area of the pitch you just keep overloading it, you keep

03:05 trying to get switches out there and we were quite fortunate.

03:10 What drove the decision to have Colby Bishop start instead of Yangi?

03:14 Obviously a number of things, I think probably the key one is the fact that Colby's had two

03:22 good weeks training, Cass has been away but also we're just in a position where we've

03:27 got two number nines who both want to play, both really have got stake in the claim that

03:34 they should be playing as well so you can call it a headache or you can call it a great

03:40 opportunity for us.

03:42 So yeah, it was that also, we just felt this was more of a game for Colby, there'd be other

03:48 games where it'd be a game for Cass so yeah it's just a great position that we're in at

03:53 the moment and ultimately we can finish games with both on the pitch and see it out which

03:58 I'm sure a lot of people do want to see but yeah I think they work well together also.

04:04 The fact that Yangi have been out on international duty with Australia as well and haven't trained

04:08 that much this week, was that part of the reason as well?

04:13 I mean I guess it would have impacted it somewhat, he had two games within that period and he

04:20 did very well in the games also so it just becomes a tactical thing but Cass again we

04:28 know whether he's subbed, whether he starts, he's going to score goals, he's going to make

04:33 a big impact and just the energy he creates when he comes on the pitch, it gives the whole

04:39 team a lift.

04:40 How do you see the rest of the season now?

04:42 I heard you saying the cliché 'game by game'.

04:46 I understand people want to talk about potentially what could happen but it genuinely is a case

04:53 that we have to go game by game, the next game is Derby, we can't look beyond that because

05:00 they're second in the league so it's a huge game for us so we take care of that and then

05:08 the focus becomes Shrewsbury and that's all we'll be doing, everything else will take

05:12 care of itself but yeah it's literally game by game so sorry to be so boring.

05:21 You keep winning and other results keep going for you as well behind you don't they in the

05:24 league?

05:25 Yeah they do, I'd be lying if I said we don't keep a check on that but ultimately all we

05:33 can do is take care of our own business and as long as we keep doing that it actually

05:37 doesn't matter what other people are doing.

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