How former Tottenham defender is winning Portsmouth hearts and making himself impossible to drop ahead of Ipswich Town
Danny Cowley pinpointed in-form Connor Ogilvie’s humility as an example for the rest of his Pompey squad to embrace.
And the Blues boss admitted he found it impossible to take the defender out of his starting XI, after once again showing his value to his side.
Cowley explained the plan was to take the former Spurs man out of his team at Crewe on Tuesday night, for Denver Hume.
But he found executing such a move impossible as Ogilvie shone in the 4-0 romp over Accrington last weekend.
The summer arrival from Gillingham rewarded his boss with a man-of-the-match performance, two assists and a display of defensive quality at Gresty Road.
Ogilvie could count himself unfortunate to find himself out of the team for three games, after impressing as Pompey beat Burton Albion at Fratton Park last month.
He returned and shone in wins against Oxford and Accy, leading to Cowley deciding he couldn’t fairly take the left-sided player out of the equation again.
Cowley said: ‘We’re a humble team and Connor typifies that.
‘We used him for a specific role on Saturday against Accrington, and the plan was to bring Denver in for Crewe.
‘But there’s only so many times you can leave someone out when the team does really well and wins.
‘So we felt it was the right decision to play him again at Crewe.
‘We knew that humility would be an important quality - and Connor has that in abundance.
‘That humility is going to be important for us moving forward, no doubt.’
Ogilvie has become renowned for his defensive solidity this season at Pompey, where his combative qualities have proved a big asset.
But it was at the other end of the pitch where he also made his mark this week where, along his assists, he produced an impudent second-half shot.
The effort saw Ogilvie flick the ball over his own head and unleash a fierce volley, which would have gone down as goal of the season had it gone in.
Cowley added: ‘He did really well on Tuesday against Dan Agyei, who is a real handful.
‘They were calling him the postman after the game, because of those two really good deliveries.
‘As for the shot, he was a Tottenham boy growing up and came through their academy, but he’s an Arsenal supporter. There was a touch of Dennis Bergkamp to that moment from him!’
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