View: Portsmouth gems can heed famous Alex Ferguson saying as league run ends
Alex Ferguson had plenty to say during his legendary managerial career but one quote in particular should stick with Portsmouth Academy this week.
The Manchester United legend once said that “you learn more from defeats than you do victories”, the moral being that you get to see how your team reacts to adversity and the character to fight back.
It is something Pompey’s Development Phase coach Sam Hudson should be pinning to the walls of the changing room this week.
The youngsters enjoyed a very decent run of form in the Youth Alliance League before being beaten 4-1 at Swindon Town over the weekend (Portsmouth website).
Before that, they had not suffered a league defeat since the middle of September when they went down 1-0 at Newport County.
Portsmouth Academy boys can bounce back
There’s an old adage that it is not how you fall but how you get back up and that is a lesson that can be learned by the youngsters when they try to get back to winning ways against Plymouth Argyle in three days.
You only need to look at the difficulties the first-teamers have faced this season since returning to the Championship to know that football isn’t always rainbows and unicorns – indeed few clubs in world football know that better than Pompey.
“The first half was probably the worst of the season for us and we just didn’t get going,” Hudson said in quotes reported by Portsmouth’s official website.
“We were incredibly poor out of possession, with our duelling and tracking of runners – things that we usually pride ourselves on.”
Fair reflections they may be from Hudson. But ultimately, he may find that the youngsters learn way more from this setback than they will from victories.
The kids are alright, they’ll bounce back quickly enough.
In other Portsmouth news, John Mousinho must demand more from that first-team ace.
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