Rodgers has his revenge on ‘critics’

Luke Rodgers had the last laugh over his Pompey team-mates after answering their criticism in the best possible way.

The new Pompey striker tucked away his first goal for the club with a neatly-taken finish in the 2-2 draw with Colchester.

His effort opened the scoring at the Weston Homes Community Stadium, while Rodgers also played a key part in the equaliser.

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His late effort crashed back off the post and straight to the feet of Jordan Obita, who was able to tap home.

Rodgers had found himself the target of the training ground boo-boys after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Bournemouth.

But he responded to the light-hearted stick in the ideal way with a clinical strike, after timing his run to latch on to Liam Walker’s exquisite pass.

Rodgers said: ‘It’s great to get off the mark for a new club. I got a bit of stick from the lads after missing a chance against Bournemouth on Saturday.

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‘I was getting hammered in training on Monday so it’s good to be able to answer them back and hopefully it’s the first of many.

‘Liam Walker put in a great ball to me.

‘I think you will see a lot of that from him this season and I didn’t have to do too much with it because it was such a good ball.

‘I just had to hit the target with it really.

‘But I was really happy to score my first goal for the club. I could have had two when I hit the post but I don’t care – as long as we got the equaliser that’s all that matters.’

Pompey will have mixed feelings about the result.

The visitors played some excellent stuff but conceded a late goal, only to then have the final say through Obita.

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Rodgers revealed he was disappointed the performance had not delivered a first win of the campaign.

He said: ‘I was a bit disappointed because I thought we were the better team.

‘You can’t take anything away from their first goal – it was probably the best goal you will see all season.

‘It was unbelievable and there’s nothing you can do about that.

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‘We were all disappointed to concede the goal on the set-piece late in the game.

‘We should have been a bit more resilient with that.

‘They are the home side and they came at us a bit.

‘But then credit to all the lads.

‘We showed really good character and it paid off to get the equaliser at the end.

‘It’s something to build on for Carlisle this weekend.

‘I think we will all improve the more we play together and get our match fitness.’

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