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St. Ledger: The Season Starts Here

Posted on: Sat 21 Aug 2010

Sean St. Ledger returned from injury to help inspire PNE to victory and got a clean sheet to boot.

The Republic of Ireland international has missed the opening weeks of the season after picking up an injury in the last week of pre-season but he was delighted to be back after a frustrating time.

"From a personal point of view it has been frustrating, not being able to take part in the opener and the Swansea game, you build for a whole pre-season and to be injured it is frustrating," St. Ledger told pne.com after the 1-0 win over Pompey.

"We haven't had two of the greatest results and I think Portsmouth's first eleven has got some big names in it but it's great to get a win and more importantly for us we have had a clean sheet and I don't think we have had one for a long long time. Hopefully now we can build on that and that is a platform for us."

With a solid and experienced international class back four, North End's creative players were given the freedom to express themselves and they certainly did that with one of the finest perfomances of the Darren Ferguson era.

He said: "I think even towards the latter part of last season our performances weren't great but all the boys dug in today and we got the result. Everyone seems to forget that we have got a young side, if you take away the back four and Lonners, the front six is really young, apart from Hayesy. It is just a case of taking time and being patient with us.

"The passing style is something we worked on in pre-season and we did the work in the week. We passed the ball really well, I think if you look at the players, we are made to play that way, we are not a big team by all accounts so that is the style we have to play."

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"It has been a good day all round, everyone is pleased with the result and pleased for the Gaffer."

Sean St. Ledger pleased after victory

St. Ledger managed to keep his old buddy David Nugent quiet for much of the game and the centre-half was impressed with a striker at the other end of the field, man of the match Joshua King: "I thought Josh was exceptional today, he had three or four chances, he didn't get on the scoresheet but he is an 18-year-old lad and the work effort he put in for the team, he got everyone going and I think everyone looked up to him.

"He set it off from the front, he was in the chances and he got the chances, he's got a bright future, I am sure he will keep working hard on his finishing and the goals will come for him, I thought he was brilliant.

"Nuge has played for England and went for a hefty price tag and I think we all felt that we kept them down to long efforts from outside the box. Nuge is always like that, we've got another round to go down at Fratton Park so I look forward to that.

"For me today I wanted to do my talking on the pitch, I think a lot of people wrote me off last year and he said I wasn't the same player when I came back from Middlesbrough which is fair enough, hopefully I have answered my critics, I feel fully refreshed after my surgery and today was a good game.

"I was looking forward to playing against Nugent, he is an exceptional player, he has got a lot of pace, it probably doesn't help him playing one up front but you can only beat what is put in front of you."

St. Ledger also had special words for his manager Darren Ferguson: "It has been a good day all round, everyone is pleased with the result and pleased for the Gaffer. As a manager you want to start off with a win and it has not happened, sometimes the pressure can build up when you read that Preston are at the bottom with no goals scored.

" It's great for the Gaffer, under the circumstances, the Club is struggling financially and that's put an extra burden on him having to bring in young players and loans, I am pleased for everybody."

The one downside was the attendance with a sub-10k crowd witnessing the first victory of the season, but St. Ledger is confident that more performances like that will have the fans coming back to Deepdale.

"From the boys point of view we want an atmosphere created inside the ground, the manager does, it makes for a completely better football match for everybody, not just for the players but for the fans as well," St. Ledger said.

"Hopefully we will try and give them performances to try and bring them back, it hasn't started off great but I just hope that they can be patient with us and stick with us through the rough times and hopefully good times will come of it."