Jackett wants Portsmouth star Curtis to keep improving his goalscoring instincts
Posted Wednesday, November 28, 2018 by PA
Portsmouth manager Kenny Jackett urged Ronan Curtis to keep getting himself into scoring positions after helping the League One leaders to a routine 2-0 win at home to Walsall.
Republic of Ireland international Curtis bagged his seventh goal of the season and made another for Oli Hawkins as Pompey cemented their four-point lead over Sunderland.
Jackett said: “Ronan has played a little bit too far wide sometimes because he needs to get in between the posts.
“He needs to be in the box and attacking more of those crosses so I am pleased he had done that and put it in.
“His positioning and his runs are something we are constantly working on. We want all our forward players to get themselves into scoring positions.”
Pompey have now gone ten games unbeaten in all competitions including five successive wins but Jackett is refusing to get carried away.
He added: “The most important thing is you look forward not back. The games that have gone we will gain confidence from but it is always onto the next game.
“It is a high quality division this year.
“We finished eighth last year which was not a bad season at all.
“We had 20 wins, 20 losses and six draws. Obviously you are trying to go a little bit better than that and improve in all areas, which we have done.”
Pompey were commanding throughout and should have had a penalty when Nicky Devlin clearly dragged down Gareth Evans in the box only for referee Alan Young to wave away their appeals.
Midfielder Ben Thompson also came close with drilled a long-range shot wide before Hawkins opened the scoring in the 25th minute.
Curtis’ deflected cross looped kindly into the path of Hawkins, who headed in from close range at the far post.
Jamal Lowe could have doubled Pompey’s lead before the break but failed to keep his shot down after latching onto Nathan Thompson’s cross.
Lowe teed up Curtis to make it 2-0 four minutes into the second half as the Irishman beat Liam Roberts at the second attempt after seeing his initial effort blocked.
Walsall manager Dean Keates said: “Football is about moments and we were not clinical enough with our moments.
“We are not helping ourselves, we are shipping goals and that is coming from mistakes.
“You cannot expect to win if you have to score three goals. We are not giving ourselves a chance to win football matches.
“I am frustrated because we have been decent in our last two games, except in the two 18-yard boxes.
“We have a big game in the FA Cup at the weekend and will hopefully give our supporters something to cheer about.”
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