Source: Team_Talk
Pompey chief eyes shift in atmosphere
Steve Cotterill is determined to turn around the negative atmosphere at Portsmouth after a second consecutive victory against Bristol City.[LNB] Pompey have started their ascent up the Championship table, with goals from John Utaka, Aaron Mokoena and Hayden Mullins at the death completing the scoring in a 3-1 triumph at Fratton Park on Tuesday night.[LNB]Cotterill said: "I am one of those positive people and the more negativity that surrounds me, the more I want to fight it.[LNB]"When you say things in the press, you offend someone somewhere down the line. If you tell the whole truth, you offend the players, the supporters or the chairman and directors.[LNB]"So what I had to do this season was come in and feed you guys a lot of bull - tell you everything, but tell you nothing.[LNB]"We had to stay positive because there was too much negativity around this football club.[LNB]"Someone somewhere had to start going the other way and I suppose I took that responsibility of trying to change it.[LNB]"Bad news always travels fast. Good news travels much steadier. Hopefully we can have some steadier news on a more regular basis now."[LNB]Cotterill cited his side's improved fitness as being key to their back-to-back wins.[LNB]He added: "We did a lot of fitness work in the international break that we weren't able to do before because, as I've said, pre-season here was an absolute joke.[LNB]"It was a joke - it will never ever happen here again while I'm manager.[LNB]"We will never be as unfit going into the first game as we were against Coventry. We had 35 minutes in us - that was us. After that we were cooked. We had nothing else. If the lads are reading this, they had better get their running shoes on next July."[LNB]Robins boss Keith Millen said: "We were under more pressure than I would have liked for the first half. Coming here is difficult and you would expect that.[LNB]"We were solid, we worked hard and we were organised. But we knew John Utaka likes to come inside on his right foot and shoot, but we let him do that from a throw-in, which is disappointing.[LNB]"The second goal came straight from a corner where Aaron Mokoena got across us. We've got a soft side to us and it's costing us at the moment.[LNB]"Too many times we have conceded bad goals or soft goals. We've got to toughen up - we have to toughen up.[LNB]"We're too inconsistent, but there were a lot of positives as well. There were some really good individual performances and we created loads of chances. They're the positives we've got to cling on to.[LNB]"Steven Caulker was terrific. I thought Albert Adomah was terrific and it was great for Jon Stead to get his first goal.[LNB]"There were a lot of good individual performances and a lot of good stuff as a team. But decisions went against us on the night and we conceded bad goals."
