Portsmouth Football Club News

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

• Ground:Fratton Park
• Capacity:19,179

Piquionne fears played down

17 Dec 2009 - 11:04:23

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Portsmouth boss Avram Grant has dispelled fears of a lengthy injury lay-off for Frederic Piquionne after the striker limped out of Wednesday's 2-1 defeat at Chelsea.

Piquionne brought Pompey level in the second half at Stamford Bridge before being forced off with a mystery injury.

But despite failing to complete the game, Grant does not believe that his joint five-goal leading scorer picked up a significant injury.

"It's nothing serious," he told the club's official website. "He worked very hard and it's good to see players taking their chance and showing that they deserve to play."

Meanwhile, Grant felt that the south coast club deserved better than to lose to a late Frank Lampard penalty.

"I think we played well against a side who are very strong at home. We closed them down and they didn't create many chances," he continued.

"In the second half we had two very big chances - one we missed and for the other Ashley Cole made a very good tackle. The result was disappointing but the performance was good.

"We're at the bottom of the table and we're playing the team that's top of the table. I don't think you could see a big difference.

"We played like a team and attacked very intelligently, causing them problems. If we were a little bit calmer with the last pass then we could have scored more than one goal.

"But this is football. We missed two chances in the second half and they scored - that's what counts."