Kenny Jackett hailed his Pompey side after they beat Plymouth to move up to seventh in the table - but he admitted it was a tense end with only a one-goal lead to protect.

Kal Naismith's first half goal, which came from a howler by Argyle keeper Remi Matthews as he tried to control a through ball on the edge of his area, proved the only one of the game. But Plymouth put Pompey under some late pressure as they tried but failed to salvage a draw.

Jackett told www.portsmouthfc.co.uk: 'We’ve need to find the goalscoring equation with Brett being out and Naismith has got a key one for us on this occasion. We had a spell at the start of the second half when we played very good football and created a lot of chances.

'At that point we were looking to get goal number two and perhaps even three, but they just didn’t come. We were a bit unlucky and Kal hit the post, but the emphasis then changed and we had to show our battling qualities.

'There were a lot of long throws into our box late on and we showed a very good attitude to negate them in a tense period. The referee added a lot of injury time, so the players had to remain resolute to ensure we got over the line.'

Conor Chaplin and Gareth Evans both went close to adding to Pompey's tally while Naismith threatened on a couple more occasions, including one effort that saw him go off injured after a collision with the keeper.

Naismith told the club website: 'I’ve got one and the team’s won, so it’s happy days. I saw the keeper rush out and that he was out of his box, so I got a bit of luck and it just fell for me. The contact wasn’t great and I just flicked out my left foot. I was panicking for a second before I saw it was going in.'

Next up for Pompey is a League Trophy clash at home to Northampton next Saturday, then they go to Charlton a week later for the second time in just over a month.

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