Sean Raggett tells his Portsmouth team-mates ‘we need to score more goals’ as they face free-scoring Sunderland
SEAN RAGGETT admits he and his Portsmouth team-mates are not doing enough to back-up their strikers.
Only four League One clubs have netted fewer goals than the 29 Pompey have mustered his season – and three of them are in the relegation zone.
And the Portsmouth centre-half says it is time for everyone to start chipping in with goals and to provide better service to the front players.
Striker Marcus Harness is the top scorer with nine goals this season while fellow frontman John Marquis is second with four.
Raggett, 28, said: “Marcus has done really well and is a big player for us.“But we simply haven’t got too many goals from other areas of the pitch – myself included.
“We’ve must find a few more goals from other areas of the field and then it will all go well for us.
“The reason why we’re not scoring how we’d like is down to a bit of everything.
“Perhaps our final actions could be a bit better and our service isn’t quite as good as it could be.
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“We’ve all got to shoulder the responsibility for that because it’s not just down to the striker’s finishing when it comes to goals.
“Just like it’s not just the defenders’ responsibility when it comes to defending.
Even us defenders have not scored enough goals and that’s something we need to improve.”
On Saturday ninth-place Pompey – who are five points off the play-off spots – are up against a team who are having no problems finding the net.
They face a third-place Sunderland team at the Stadium of Light who not only have League One top scorer Ross Stewart among their ranks.
He has scored 19 goals while his team are also the division’s top scorers with 52 already.
Although, ironically, Pompey thumped the Black Cats 4-0 at Fratton Park when the teams last met in October.
Raggett said: “We’ve normally done all right against Sunderland – who are of course one of the biggest clubs in this league.
“It’s a huge stadium with loads of fans and they’re promotion rivals so it’s a big one.
“I love playing up there. It’s no surprise even the England national team have played at the Stadium of Light because it’s a great atmosphere there and this is the type of game you want to be involved in.
“And, yes, I’m looking forward to playing against strikers like Ross Stewart, who has been scoring goals, because it’s a great challenge.
“I compare Sunderland similarly to us. We’re two big clubs that have been stuck in this division for a while now.
“Because of the size of the club, we are able to attract the best players. Their squad – like ours – is very strong.
“It’ll be an interesting game and most probably a tight one.”
Raggett has loved playing for manager Danny Cowley and his brother and assistant Nicky again.
The defender played a year-and-a-half under the brothers at Lincoln, where they won the National League and famously reached the FA Cup quarter-final against Arsenal.
Raggett’s last-minute winner toppled Premier League Burnley at Turf Moor in the round before.
And he said: “I know how they work and what they expect so it’s been great working for those two again.
“They are two people who just love football – their whole lives are dominated by it.
“I have never come across anyone who goes into the level of detail they go into. “We know every small detail of all our opponents as well as what is expected of us. We do a lot of work in groups in the meeting rooms throughout the week.
“Lincoln had been stuck in the National League for quite a few years before they arrived and took them up – and I believe they’ll do exactly that here at Portsmouth.”
Raggett believes another reason Portsmouth have not been able to get fully motoring until recently is because of constant injury problems.
He said: “It’s a strange one because we’ve started out well. We had four clean sheets in a row at the start but we then had a bad spell because of injuries to key players.
“For a big chunk of the season for example, I’ve been the only centre-half who has been fit.
“But we came through a dodgy spell and have just been hitting some decent form.
“Up until losing to MK Dons last Saturday, we had gone 10 games unbeaten but hopefully we can go on another good run.”
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