Post Pompey: Shearer

At about 7:50 last night I got a text from a West Ham supporting mate who, having seen the Roeder induced relegation of a team 'too good to go down`, knows his onions on unexpected relegation. He said our best chance of scoring on the night was going to be Shearer putting his boots back on. Unbeknown he was probably right as the big name front three who have cost the club probably somewhere in the region of £75m in fees and wages fired another blank. Anyway, our crestfallen boss said:

"We are relying on other people. Results went for us at the weekend, apart from the Blackburn one. But it`s going to be a tense end to the season, we all know that. We have got to make sure we are still in there fighting come the second last, come the last game of the season. I don`t know what is going to be enough to stay up.

I would have expected to have won them all. But we haven`t. Coming in last night we asked the fans to give us a great atmosphere. They did exactly that and I thank them. We will not give up. There were plenty of positives still. We created more chances in one game last night than we did in the previous three. I know we were at home and we were expected to do that. But we had to take of them. Oba had one, Michael had one and Mark Viduka had one.

You`d have expected at least one to go in. If that was the case, then we`d have won the game. I was really pleased with the effort and commitment. There were no faults there. It was just that little bit of quality in the final third and we would have won.

Obviously we started chasing it and put on as many forwards on as possible for the last 15 minutes. And it was inevitable that in trying to win the game we were going to leave gaps at the back, but we were desperately disappointed not to win it. Whether it turns out to be a good point or a bad one, I don`t know.

The only thing I can guarantee is that there will be twists and turns between now and the end of the season. Four games is a long, long time. I understand everybody`s frustrations. I am exactly the same. We`ve got two remaining home games and we have to see what happens in those. We need to be still in the mix.

I would have expected to have won them all. But we haven`t. Coming in last night we asked the fans to give us a great atmosphere. They did exactly that and I thank them. We will not give up. There were plenty of positives still. We created more chances in one game last night than we did in the previous three. I know we were at home and we were expected to do that. But we had to take of them. Oba had one, Michael had one and Mark Viduka had one.

You`d have expected at least one to go in. If that was the case, then we`d have won the game. It was the easiest team talk of my four games. I was really pleased with the effort and commitment. There were no faults there. It was just that little bit of quality in the final third and we would have won.

Obviously we started chasing it and put on as many forwards on as possible for the last 15 minutes. And it was inevitable that in trying to win the game we were going to leave gaps at the back, but we were desperately disappointed not to win it. Whether it turns out to be a good point or a bad one, I don`t know.

The only thing I can guarantee is that there will be twists and turns between now and the end of the season. Four games is a long, long time. I understand everybody`s frustrations. I am exactly the same. We`ve got two remaining home games and we have to see what happens in those. We need to be still in the mix."

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