“I thought my team were excellent today. I thought, first half, we were the better team but we weren’t incisive enough. We didn’t put enough crosses in the box and we discussed that at half-time." Warne told the clubs official website
“We tried to change it and upped the tempo a little bit. The lads gained confidence from that. I thought our second-half performance merited a win. Goodness knows how many corners we had, we must have had 15! It didn’t seem to drop to the right person at the right time."
“There were some really good performances today, which makes me really proud. The three subs who went on today all had a massive impact. The changing room was bouncing in there, they’re a really close group and were pleased to get the three points.
“First-half we didn’t do things quick enough, we didn’t move the ball quick enough. When we got it out wide we were looking for the perfect cross as opposed to just making them defend. We were much better in the second half and got much more crosses in. We had a real go at them.”
“Joe Newell came on, I thought Ryan Williams had a great game but I just wanted something different. Him and Mattock were putting loads of balls in. I thought Michael Smit for his home debut was excellent. We’re working with him all the time and trying to get him to be the best he can be. I felt he was a real handful."
“The most pleasing thing for me is Joe Mattock, our left-back in injury-time scoring the winner. It shows how much the lads want to win and how fit and determined they are. So, it was good scenes at the end of the game for sure."
“I think the fans appreciate how we played today. Even though there was a couple minutes injury time, I didn’t see many people leaving. Even if it would have been a 0-0 I think the fans would have appreciated the lads’ efforts. They tried everything they could, threw the kitchen sink. Credit to Portsmouth, they defended really well. Although in fairness, I thought we deserved the win.”
Warne gave his thoughts on newcomer Michael Smith; “It’ll take a few weeks to get the most out of him, As in like the way we play, the tempo we have and training demands we give him. The coaches are doing a lot of work with him to build him up to be a real threat.”