Danny Cowley said Pompey's win at Gillingham - clinched through an injury time own goal made by Michael Jacobs - was probably their best of the season. And he said the 1,400-plus Blues fans who braved the cold and wet on the Gills' open away end deserved it.
Cowley told the media after Pompey's fourth straight league win: 'It’s a fantastic outcome and probably our best win of the season against a direct and powerful Gillingham side. We had no natural centre-halves, so to keep a clean sheet was a magnificent effort — the winner in the final moments was well deserved.
'It’s never easy coming to Priestfield and facing a Steve Evans team. You certainly know what you’ll be up against. You have to compete without getting dragged into that. I don’t think we did well enough with the ball, but we found a way and sometimes the will is more important than the skill.
'The way Gillingham set up means it’s hard to get rhythm and the ball is always off the pitch, while they take long throws from everywhere. But a lot of our physical, aerial players were missing, so the group deserve a lot of credit for doing what they did.
'We’ll play a lot better than that and it certainly wasn’t a game for the purists, but if you want to be a good team then you have to win all different kinds of matches. We came from behind to beat AFC Wimbledon last week, performed really well on Tuesday and then had to dig deep to find a goal in injury-time against Gillingham.'
Next up for the Blues is an FA Cup tie at home to Harrogate on Saturday, followed by Sheffield Wednesday's visit in the league on Tuesday, December 7.