HARNESS LET LOOSE

Goal hero says grit’s going to be a tougher Pompey from now

MARCUS HARNESS believes Portsmouth have finally found graft to go with grace as they bid to break into the League One promotion race.

The winger’s goal made it eight points from four games and six matches unbeaten for a Pompey team that had previously managed just one victory in 13 games.

Harness has been central to his club’s revival with six goals in his last 10 games, but it was the manner of this away-day slog that pleased him most.

“That is what we have been missing, that grittiness,” said the former Port Vale player. “It’s in there, but it’s just finding the right balance between being a good team that wants to play attractive football and having the fight when we need it.

“I’m sure we’ll figure it out and we’ll get there. That was our biggest win so far this season because we have shown a different side to us.”

The friction on the field in a feisty affair included four yellow cards, a missed penalty, two more disputed claims, and yellows cards for Pompey boss Danny Cowley and his brother and assistant Nicky.

Harness (celebrating his goal, above) was Portsmouth’s outstanding creative talent, but he was also indebted to goalkeeper Alex Bass, who saved a penalty from Wycombe’s Joe Jacobson in the first half and then produced a superb stop to deny Sam Vokes late on.

Harness confessed it might have been a different story had he not shown admirable calmness to recover his poise in the act of scoring his 73rd-minute winner.

A rapid counter-attack, with the impressive Ronan Curtis and George Hirst combining, led to the ball arriving for Harness to sweep home. He made a hash of his first effort but stayed focused to get the ball from under his feet and score (below).

He admitted: “I nearly missed. When it’s clear you have to score, you start over-thinking it in your head.

“Normally it’s just instinct.

“Luckily, it landed right in front of me after I’d bobbled it and I could just stick it in the net.

“It was a hardfought game and we had kept a clean sheet, so it was a big moment in the match.

“The gaffer always says that, once we have shown him what we can do, he expects that level every week.

“Now that we have shown him, we need to replicate this.

“We have it in us to win games like that so we have to build on it.”

Wycombe have suffered back-toback defeats at home but manager Gareth Ainsworth insisted: “The bigger picture is that we are better than we have ever been.

“We had 21 shots at goal and someone, soon, is going to get a battering. It’s not all doom and gloom.”