Knight: A steely Pompey win '“Â and I actually agreed with marks out of 10
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Saturday's clash with Luton has created a landmark occasion - it's the first time I've agreed with Neil Allen's marks out of 10!
The chief sports writer got his ratings spot on for once following a dogged performance against the Hatters. Jack Whatmough got the thumbs-up from me for man of the match just in front of Matt Clarke, who had an excellent game.
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Hide AdI more or less agreed with his other ratings in a game where we defended fanastically well, but failed to as much as we'd have liked going forward.
Craig MacGillivray had a really good debut in goal and made some good saves.
The one which stood out to me was the second-half save to deny Harry Cornick,
Craig decided to stand up, whereas a lot of keepers these days try to go 'spider' in their attempts to keep the ball out of the net.
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Hide AdThe save from the free-kick was eye-catching but I rated the one from Cornick over that one.
He dominated his area and cleared stuff up on the way to a clean sheet.
I'm sure he's more than happy with his start.
Nathan Thompson made some great interceptions and tackles, too, and summed up how everyone was committed to the cause.
I was little concerned with how we played defensively when lost to Stevenage in our pre-season friendly.
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Hide AdBut it shows you how much the lads have clearly worked in a short spell to tighten things up.
Going forward, it was good to see Jamal Lowe back from his injury with a goal.
Then there was Ronan Curtis who was a standout player early on and was everywhere with his work-rate.
I think we all know we got over-ran a little bit in midfield at times and there's clearly stuff to work on. That's something we'll need to work on moving forward.
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Hide AdI'm sure we will play a lot better than that and get beaten this season, but a start with a win is a good start and that will help with everyone's confidence.
  I think Luton will be there or thereabouts this season, so it's a good basis to building belief.
 There's now a few days to get  additions and I'm sure things will be stepped up to fill the attacking areas Kenny believes need strengthening.  Â
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