The manager on the Portsmouth game
United manager Greg Abbott spoke to us about the thrilling 4-2 victory over Portsmouth shortly after full time on Saturday.He said: "The keyword for us throughout last week was response. We wanted to see the players get out there and show us the determination and energy which we felt was missing from Tuesday night. They did that and they got their victory for it ... in the end.
"Just once I'd love to be able to sit back and enjoy a win. Yet again we've gone through the mill, but we've kept going and I'm delighted for the players. We've got the first league win of the season under our belt and our record is won two, drawn one, lost one; which isn't too bad.
"We'll take some confidence from the game because we've created chances and scored goals. Jake [Jervis] has come in and been a real handful and he's shown everyone what he can do. This is a good start for all of us, it gets us another three points on the table and we can build on it from here.
"A lot of what we saw was fantastic and there was certainly plenty of excitement out there. I'd have preferred it to end 2-0 if you really push me on it, because things like that are really tough to watch as a manager. You ask me what I've learned about the group from that last ten minutes - I can tell you I've learned absolutely nothing. It was about passion and energy, and credit to them for seeing it through.
"We've seen some mistakes but we haven't allowed ourselves to disappear because of them. We did get a bit edgy and ragged in the last fifteen minutes or so but it's hard to be critical when they have given everything, as they did in this one.
"There were a lot of good performances all over the pitch. We made changes after Tuesday because we weren't happy and you would expect players to be upset about that. What we ask for them is to go out there and perform for us. When they do that they make team selection difficult for us, because we want them all to be staking a claim.
"We can all go away from this and have smiles on our faces for the rest of the weekend before we get ready to go again on Monday. We're used to not getting bank holidays because we have a big game to get ready for, and I'm sure Paul [Jewell] won't be too happy about having to travel up here for it. We'll train and warm down on Monday and use it to make sure we're all fit and sharp, and then we'll take it from there."
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