Source: Team_Talk
Cotterill: We still need more players
Steve Cotterill admitted he needs reinforcements to sustain Portsmouth's promotion bid after their 2-1 home win over Nottingham Forest.[LNB] Liam Lawrence scored the second-half winner after Forest's Paul Anderson had equalised Ibrahima Sonko's header in the opening period.[LNB]The win was Pompey's fourth in a row which extends their unbeaten run to seven games, a run which has lifted them to 10th place in the Championship and just one point off the play-off places.[LNB]Cotterill said: "If we want to be up and around there, we can't run with the squad we've got.[LNB]"We had a bench today with Richard Hughes, who hasn't trained all week. We had Hermann Hreidarsson who hadn't played for six months. He went on and made a cameo at the end.[LNB]"We need fit boys who can come on and change a game.[LNB]"Look at their substitutes. It's not just (Robert) Earnshaw; they had (Dexter) Blackstock too. You'd be in your element if you had a bench like they had.[LNB]"I don't mean that to put our players down. But they had top Championship players on their bench."[LNB]On Sonko he added: "I thought Ibrahima Sonko was outstanding. I thought he was absolutely magnificent. If anybody gives him a nine out of 10 - they're wrong. He deserves a 10.[LNB]"He capped it with a goal and I was chuffed to bits for him. I'm really, really pleased and the lads were all over him as well.[LNB]"He has been left out of the team, he has come back, but when he was out of the team, he was so supportive.[LNB]"He's not the silkiest footballer; we all know that. But I'll tell you what, he has a heart the size of a lion. If we hadn't had him, we could have gone under when there were five of them up against our back four."[LNB]Nottingham Forest boss Billy Davies has called on his players to learn from the way Portsmouth play to improve their game.[LNB]Davies said: "When you look at the game, what we need to learn here is that maybe we should look to take a leaf out of their (Portsmouth's) book and the way in which they play.[LNB]"We want to play the Forest way and we did play some wonderful football during periods of the game.[LNB]"But we lost soft goals. We had a huge amount of chances to get back into the game, go in front and score goals.[LNB]"The bottom line is we came here against a side which has some physical presence, they compete very well and they have huge experience of Premier League football.[LNB]"They have an enormous budget in comparison to us, but I think that's as good a test as they will get all season.[LNB]"We tried to go for it with (Robert) Earnshaw, (Dexter) Blackstock and (Dele) Adebola.[LNB]"We pinned them and we had chances, but to lose to a corner kick we had been working on for three days is very disappointing. The second goal was extremely soft again.[LNB]"For weeks and weeks and weeks, anybody who has watched us would say we are playing well.[LNB]"We're young and we're immature at times. We're still not realising how to play and grind out results. That's the part we've got to learn."
