Marlon Pack delighted by what he witnessed from teammate in Portsmouth win vs Millwall: 'Love it'
Marlon Pack captained Portsmouth to their fifth win of the season against Millwall on Saturday.
The response John Mousinho's side have made since losing the South Coast derby to Southampton has been exceptional.
Pompey are four games unbeaten in the Championship since that defeat at St Mary's, winning three of those.
Millwall rocked up at Fratton Park on Saturday afternoon hoping to snap a poor run of form of their own, but they fell short in that mission.
After Jenson Metcalfe gave the Lions an early lead, a Lyndon Dykes own goal followed by a Thomas Waddingham winner late on earned the Blues all three points.
Pack played the full 90 minutes in this one, and was left over the moon by one of his Pompey comrades in particular.
Whose Portsmouth performance did Marlon Pack 'love' vs Millwall?
After this latest victory, Portsmouth continue to climb the second-tier table and now sit 11th.
Mousinho's men are now just two points outside the play-offs, and could well be a dark horse in the promotion race this term.
Saturday's winner was scored by Waddingham, and it marked the Australian's first minutes back on the pitch since early August.
The 21-year-old suffered an ankle injury that required surgery, and in his first 19 league minutes from the bench against Millwall, immediately made up for lost time.
He took to his Instagram after the game to post an emotional message to the Pompey faithful.
"Means a lot this one," he wrote. "Been so long since I’ve scored for this club having gone through such a tough period of injuries including two surgeries.
"Thank you to everyone who has supported me through this time and we keep pushing. Massive shift from the lads."
A whole host of Portsmouth players responded to Waddingham's post in the comments, and one of them was the captain, Pack.
The 35-year-old said: "Love it Waddo", but aside from his goal, what else did we learn about Waddingham in his impactful cameo from the bench?
How Waddingham flashed his rawness vs Millwall
Still so young and inexperienced in English football, Waddingham remains a developmental player at Portsmouth.
An Australian youth international with goalscoring pedigree in the A-League, the young strikers is clearly a player with plenty of talent and potential.
Refining that will be the task for both himself and Portsmouth's coaches over the coming years, and his Millwall display showed there's still work to be done.
Per FotMob, Waddingham created two chances, scored with his only shot, completed two his three pass attempts successfully and made two recoveries.
However, he also committed three fouls, won none of his three ground duels or any of his two in the air, whilst also winning zero tackles and was dispossessed once.
All of that in just 19 minutes, Waddingham flashed his creative and goalscoring potential, but also his room for improvement in the physical side of the game.
But with the Aussie now back in the fold, Mousinho has a plethora of striking talent in Colby Bishop and Marko Milovanovic to choose from.