Pompey's keeper conceded just one goal in the club's historic FA Cup campaign last season and kicked off their defence with another clean sheet.

But after his first shut-out since the 0-0 draw with West Ham back in November, James was grateful for the recent defensive improvement as the team built on a decent performance at Arsenal last weekend.

James said: 'Defensively, we were sound. They only had a couple of chances and we kept it very tight.

'We're preparing for games as we always do.

'Defensively, we've looked a lot better in the past two games and at
Arsenal we were unlucky not to come away with anything from the game.

'It looks a lot more like the team that played last season at the moment.

'We're doing the same sorts of things, we look harder to beat and that's what we want.'

James was called into serious action just once throughout the match as he palmed over Bradley Orr's second-half header.

But the England keeper felt Pompey should have already booked their place in the fourth round.

He said: 'Obviously you want to win, but if you can't do that, you make sure that you're in that hat.

'But we're still in there. We had much better possession and much better chances, but they defended pretty well and their goalkeeper made one or two decent saves as well.

'I also thought we had one or two decent penalty shouts which didn't go our way. Overall, I think we should be happy with the performance. I thought it was a decent and positive performance.

'Predominantly, the play was in their half and we were the team doing most of the attacking.'

With the action played out on a bobbly Fratton Park pitch that had frozen in places, James is hopeful Bristol City may be more adventurous in the replay on Tuesday week.

James said: 'The pitch didn't help. It wasn't quite rock hard, but it was definitely bobbly out there.

'Both teams had to cope with that, but I thought we did quite well and tried to pass the ball. We'll see how City approach it when we get there and see if they come at us a bit more.'

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