Penny starting to drop for Pompey
Posted Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by PA
Portsmouth boss Paul Hart feels Frederic Piquionne is beginning to adapt to English football after watching him inspire the Fratton Park side to a 4-0 Carling Cup rout of Stoke.
Piquionne was on target twice and set up another for Danny Webber before Kanu added the fourth as Pompey surged into the quarter-finals.
The France striker, who has been signed on a season-long loan from Lyon, has been frozen out of the first-team picture since September but Hart was pleased with his contribution against Stoke.
"The penny is starting to drop with Frederic," said Hart, who made seven changes from Saturday's 0-0 draw at Hull.
"We have a lot of players who haven't played in the Premier League and it's a massive change for them.
"There's an English attitude to the game that Frederic has to acquire.
"He was recommended to us. When we signed him we were absolutely brassic (broke) and free sounds good.
"His goalscoring record in France wasn't the best but we hope he'll make goals for people as well."
Pompey have the worst scoring record in the Barclays Premier League but have been rampant in the Carling Cup, with Tuesday night's quartet lifting their total to 11 goals in three games.
"We've been threatening for a while to hurt somebody and the players got the reward for their performance and the chances they created," said Hart.
"Obviously we need to take a little bit of that into our league performances. The players were determined to put a performance in.
"I was pleased to secure the clean sheet again. The more of those we rack up the better chance we have of winning matches.
"The number of chances we created was pleasing."
Stoke made 10 changes and paid the price by failing to create a single chance, leaving manager Tony Pulis to lament their shortcomings in the final third.
"The four we conceded were very poor goals to give away and were typified by Glenn Whelan falling over the ball for their fourth," he said.
"When we got in Pompey's final third there were at least five occasions where our final ball was absolutely shocking.
"If we'd picked people out we'd have had great opportunities ourselves.
"Between both boxes we did okay, but games are won or lost in the final third. We weren't good enough at both ends.
"I was expecting us to have a go at Portsmouth and I'm disappointed we didn't.
"Those 10 players haven't played together much this season so you can't expect them to go out and put in a great performance."
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