Harness: I’m Trying to Keep Pushing and Ready For When I Get My Next Chance Friday, 27th Oct 2023 16:57 Marcus Harness has appeared regularly for Town this season – in 10 of their 12 Championship games so far – but he will be looking to make only his second start when Plymouth are the visitors to Portman Road tomorrow. Nine of his outings have been as a substitute and it was in his first-ever second tier start, the Blues’ 3-0 home win against Hull earlier this month, that he scored his only goal of the current campaign, making it seven in total from his 50 league appearances for the club, 22 of them starts, since arriving from Portsmouth in July last year. The 27-year-old attacking midfielder watched most of the action at Ashton Gate in midweek, as Town beat Bristol City 1-0, from the bench before being introduced as a replacement for matchwinner Nathan Broadhead in the 70th minute. Harness said: “It was another good performance. It maybe took us a little bit to get into the game after the international break but I think we had the better of the chances, even after their one near the end that was knocked off the line by Brandon [Williams]. “I think we deserved to win over the balance of the game and it was another good display by the lads. Now we’re just looking forward to another challenge against Plymouth, a team we’re obviously really familiar with after we were both promoted from League One last season.” Town remain second in the table, nine points ahead of third-placed Leeds and also with a game in hand on them, and have shown several different sides to their character, either battling back after going behind or successfully seeing games out, as at Ashton Gate, and not folding under pressure from the opposition. Harness added: “We’ve shown a lot of different strings to our bow over the course of our season so far. Last season was often a case of teams trying to stop us playing, kind of banking up against us, but on Wednesday we had a different kind of challenge and it’s been very mixed this season. “We’ve had to see games out, we’ve dominated the ball at times and we’ve come through all the tests we’ve been set so far. We’re feeling good but obviously we have another tough test to deal with against Plymouth tomorrow.” Harness was asked if he and his colleagues thought about the nine-point gap between themselves and third place and he replied: “Not really. It doesn’t really matter at this point of the season, does it? Obviously, it’s nice to know how well we’ve been doing and people are talking about how promoted teams have done in the past, compared to us. “But it’s only the end of October, so there’s a lot of football still to be played and the staff keep us locked in and grounded in that way a lot. As a group we felt it last season, that a lot can change over the course of a full campaign, so we’re just trying to enjoy it and to keep the good performances coming.” Reflecting on his first Championship start against Hull, he added: “It was a massive moment and something that I’d been waiting a long time to do. It had been a goal of mine for a long time to get to this level and also prove myself at this level. That was why I joined this club, to get to this level and play in the Championship. “It has been hard to find minutes, but I really enjoy it when I play and now I’m waiting for the next opportunity. I’m trying to keep pushing the lads and staying ready for when I get my next chance, whenever it might be.” The taming of the Tigers also provided Harness with his first goal in England’s second tier, stabbing in from George Hirst’s low centre after the big striker had raced out to the left to control a long clearance from keeper Vaclav Hladky. Harness added: “I’ve watched a lot of football from being sat on the bench and some very good, complete performances among them. It’s what we are focusing on – the level of our performances – and we’re happy where we are at the minute. There are always things we can improve upon but we’re doing well and just looking forward to another game tomorrow.”
The player, who launched his career at Burton and had loan spells with non-league duo Ilkeston and Aldershot, as well as Port Vale, before joining Pompey, was also asked about his part in the second goal in the Hull match, which started with keeper Vaclav Hladky before he was involved twice before Conor Chaplin curled into the top corner of the net from just outside the box from Leif Davis’s cutback. Told how the goal was a huge hit on social media, Harness replied: “It’s obviously nice to be involved in such a good goal but I tend not to dwell on things for too long. “We’re always moving on to the next fixture so I don’t think it would be too good an idea to keep looking back. I enjoyed watching it back at the time but I don’t really take too much notice after that. “We’ve scored a few goals this season that have started with Vaz playing passes that cut right through teams. It’s a part of how we’re playing, being brave at the back and building through the pitch. “We don’t just make passes for the sake of it; if we can cut through the opposition in two or three passes we’ll do that as well. We’ve scored a few memorable goals this season.”
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