Portsmouth Football Club News

• Nickname:Pompey
• Founded:1898
• Manager:Michael Appleton

• Ground:Fratton Park
• Capacity:19,179

Grant backs Quincy to shine

16 Feb 2010 - 12:56:48

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Portsmouth boss Avram Grant has backed Quincy Owusu-Abeyie to help his team move off the foot of the Premier League table.

The 23-year-old former Arsenal player moved to Fratton Park from Spartak Moscow last month and was in sparkling form in Saturday's FA Cup fifth round clash at Southampton, scoring one goal and creating two others in Pompey's 4-1 success.

Grant said: "Quincy hadn't played for a long time before he came here, he didn't even train. In Russia the weather was minus 25, so he just couldn't.

"Since he came to Portsmouth, we've had a programme to get him to play again, to improve his fitness.

"Then, when we changed the system to 4-3-3 in the second half against Southampton, it was a place for him to play and use his qualities. It's taken time but he's a talent. He's a good player.

"I think we will now see more of him. We need to use all our squad - our squad is short and not balanced.

"Quincy is very quick, can beat players one-on-one, he's good with the ball. You saw that with the goal he scored. I also like very much the crosses he can make.

"I know him from his time at Arsenal and followed him very closely when he was in Russian football. We know he's a player with a lot of quality."