Portsmouth striker Agyemang points to costly double

Published on: 16 December 2013

Patrick Agyemang pointed to his two crucial near misses that could have changed the course of yet another Fratton Park defeat for Pompey.

The Blues went down to a 2-0 loss to Newport as they continue to look over their collective shoulders at the bottom of League Two ahead of a vital Christmas period.

But it could have been so different had the Pompey striker’s first-half shot not been brilliantly blocked on the line by Andy Sandell, after a brisk move opened up the Welsh side’s defence.

Agyemang said: ‘I was gutted because I thought I did everything right.

‘I watched it again on the DVD straight after the game.

‘I hit it as hard as I could and normally those ones tend to go in off the guy on the line.

‘Unfortunately, not this time and he got a good block on it.

‘Had we got that first goal, I think it would have made a big difference and given everyone a lift.

‘It would have given us all that bit of confidence.’

The former QPR striker went close once again shortly before Newport took the lead, as he saw keeper Lenny Pidgeley make a smart save to his left, while David Pipe completed the clearance on the Newport goalline.

‘I was a bit unlucky not to have two goals to be honest, because the second one was a great save by the keeper,’ said Agyemang.

‘It just wouldn’t quite come for us this time because Jed Wallace went close as well when he hit the post.

‘You have those days but when that happens, you’ve got to keep the ball out of your own net and we didn’t do that.’

The powerful front man was back in the Pompey starting line-up after being out for a month with a thigh problem.

But although he was withdrawn midway through the second half, he insisted it was not down to an injury but purely because he had been out of action recently.

Agyemang added: The injury has been alright. I hadn’t really trained and then we had a hard week under the new manager, but I felt good.

‘When you haven’t played for a while, you lose that bit of fitness but I will get another week of training and be ready for the next game.

‘It’s disappointing to lose but we’ve got to dust ourselves down and prepare for the next game next weekend.’

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