Glen Little did not feature in the first leg at Burnley on Saturday, and the winger is hoping to be involved tonight against the Clarets, for whom he made 237(+45) appearances. Read below for an in-depth interview.
Glen you weren't involved on Saturday although you did travel up to the game.
Yes, the gaffer pulled me on Friday and said we will save you for Tuesday. I had trained on the Thursday and felt alright but it was a big game and with only one training session the gaffer felt it was a bit of a gamble.
I would have loved just 15-20 minutes, but I travelled anyway because of the respect I have for the gaffer and I want to help win promotion whatever way I can. Whether that's starting games or playing bits here and there, the gaffer knows I won't shout my mouth off, it was his decision. I said I would go with whatever you say, you know best and I'm here if you feel I can help.
When you're watching, you're thinking it would be great to be out there with the atmosphere and so on, but then you think I could still be at Portsmouth doing nothing, so I'm here and that's a bonus. I'm here to help and hopefully Tuesday I will be able to do that for the team.
The second leg now, exciting isn't it?
It's still all to play for. Obviously we were disappointed to lose out to one goal, and I think for long spells we were the dominant team. We made some great chances but maybe not as many as we would like. In the first half the keeper made some great saves and in the second half maybe they were there for the taking and we didn't do that.
I didn't realise but Burnley were the in-form team, having won their last five with quite a few goals. But on Saturday we did the job on them and looked far superior. It was then disappointing to look at the last 15 minutes and see we didn't capitalise on being on top and do enough to get the goal. They got a penalty and unfortunately we lost 1-0, but now it's back to the Madejski and although it hasn't been great for us at home recently there's still all to play for and we still have a good chance.
Reading won at home to Burnley earlier in the season.
You don't really pay any attention to what happens then. It's all about these two games in a short space of time. We had a few press cuttings up in the dressing room on Saturday and I think people thought Burnley were the in-form team and we just limped into the play-offs, but we showed we were the superior team on the day. Had we got a 0-0 I think we'd have felt disappointed because we felt we could win.
It was then disappointing to lose Bikey, he's a top player and is arguably the best centre half in the division when he wants to be. But it's not just him losing out, we lose out by not having him in the team now, maybe at Wembley too, and we need our big players out there.
He's young and has to learn and it would be a shame if he keeps making these mistake because he's a top player who should be playing in the top games.
What did you say to him as a team mate?
He's only young. He played fantastically for the first 85 minutes but it's a shame he has let himself down and us too because we need our big players now. You look at Bikey and he could easily play in the Premier League when he gets out of second gear. It's not just the penalty, we can live with that, 1-0 down we get on and make the most of our chances. But now he misses Tuesday and if we get to the final he misses that and it's his career, he missed the African Nations final and he has so much to offer as a player.
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