Manager praises positive response

PAUL Dickov felt his men responded positively to criticism.
An own goal by Johnny Ertl – credited to Jonathan Grounds, who put in the cross which led to the second-half winner – settled a contest spoiled by a terrible performance from the match officials, who erroneously sent off Athletic defender Cliff Byrne.

Athletic were bright on the counter-attack and worthy of the morale-boosting victory.

“There have been a lot of questions asked of the players this week,” said Dickov, referring to chairman Simon Corney’s blast at the team’s performance.

“The best way, when that happens, is to put a performance in that shows how together they are and how determined they are to go and get a result.

“We mixed it up a lot better than we have been doing recently. We got behind them and then played the football in their half when we had to.”

Byrne was dismissed after 64 minutes on the advice of fourth official Mark Pottage.

Originally, Portsmouth attacker Jordan Obita was the sole man shown a red card after tangling with Connor Brown, but Berry was later directed to dismiss the wrong Athletic player.




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