The Blues' record signing made his long-awaited bow when he appeared as a half-time substitute at Swindon last night.

Hermann Hreidarsson, Jermain Defoe and Danijel Subotic were the scorers in a 3-1 triumph, trialist OJ Krumah setting up two of them.

For Crouch, it was a subdued performance on his Pompey comeback.
Partnering fellow new boy Ben Sahar, the England striker was given little service and was not presented with an opportunity to mark the occasion with a goal.

But afterwards he revealed he was more concerned with netting 45 minutes than netting a goal.

Redknapp says theymust learn to feed Crouch. Click here

He said: 'I was pleased just to get a run out really. That's 45 minutes under my belt.

'As a team maybe we could have done a bit better but it was good for the fitness and obviously to get my first game in front of the fans.

'Personally, it was one of those days. On another day things would have fell for me. I didn't have too many chances but I was just pleased to get out there and play.

'At the end of the day, it was 45 minutes of football and first things first, it's about your fitness and getting sharp – and I felt sharp.

'We were under a bit of pressure so I didn't get too much of the ball but I know in other games I'll get a lot more of the ball and hopefully show what I can do.'

The full article contains 272 words and appears in The News newspaper.