POMPEY’S MARQUIS SIGNING KEEPS THE FAITH
JOHN Marquis insists he’s feeling no added pressure following his £2m summer switch to Portsmouth – and is convinced the goals will soon flow.
Heading into the weekend, the 27-year-old forward had netted just one league goal following his marquee move from Doncaster, where he plundered 67 goals in three seasons.
Marquis was even hauled off at half-time during Pompey’s 2-1 victory over his old team last weekend, but rightly points out that he endured longer barren spells when he was establishing himself as one of the Football League’s most consistent marksmen.
He once went 11 matches without netting for Rovers and attaches no relevance to his transfer fee when reflecting on a modest start at Fratton Park.
“I don’t think about that, because that was nothing to do with me,” the Lewisham-born striker reasoned. “Doncaster decided on a fee they wanted, and Portsmouth were willing to pay it.
“That’s football and how transfers work. I don’t feel I have to prove much to anyone, because I’ve shown what I can do at this level.
“I had worse runs at Doncaster, so I know how to get through these spells and how to manage them. You just have to keep believing, make sure your performance levels stay high and get into good positions where you believe the ball will go with good service.
“We’ve not been playing to our full potential as a team and not been as creative as we’d have liked, but you don’t go from being a striker who scores 20 goals a season to somebody who has lost their touch overnight. “I know the goals will come. I’ve just got to find my feet as quickly as possible, and all strikers know that the next goal can be around the corner and it can quickly be followed by a second and a third.”
Despite Portsmouth – playoff semi-finalists last term – occupying a bottom-half berth in League One, Marquis also still harbours hopes of a return to Championship football. He last played at that level in 2014 for his first club Millwall.
Respect
“There were two main clubs from the Championship who put in bids (in the summer), but Doncaster turned them down,” Marquis said. “Then, the Portsmouth opportunity came along. “I had a year left on my contract and there was an opportunity for me to move back down south, close to my family, and the offer of a longer deal to provide more security. It was also a chance to work with my old manager and the move was probably the right time for me and Doncaster. “It was still a tough decision and not one I took lightly. I scored lots of goals for the club and won promotion and, who knows, maybe one day there will be a possibility to go back but, at the moment, I’m at a club with big ambitions and playing for a manager who knows how to get promoted. “I still want to play at that level and I feel, at 27, I have my best years ahead of me. We’ve been under-performing, but we’ve picked up some good wins by the odd goal recently and there’s still a long way to go to get where we want to be.
“We have to make sure the expectation at the club doesn’t become too much, but I’d like to think we’ll be there or thereabouts come May.”
Pompey chief Kenny Jackett already has League One promotions with Millwall and Wolves on his CV.
The former Welsh international also handed Marquis his professional debut for the Lions, where he briefly partnered loan recruit Harry Kane in an all-teenage attack. Marquis has full respect for what his old team-mate has gone on to achieve and has stayed in touch with the goal-hungry England captain down the years, adding: “I still speak to him now and again and he’ll always give me one of his shirts for a charity that’s close to me.
“He was a young, hard-working player and adapted very well to the Championship.
“He scored quite a few goals and the only thing you might have said about him then was that he lacked a yard of sharpness, but he seems to have got quicker over the years and is rightly one of the world’s mostfeared strikers.”