Shut-outs are key for Pompey
Paul Hart hailed his backline's new-found resilience and insisted: The clean sheets are key.
And the Blues heralded the emergence of his Pompey pups – the Premier League's youngest defensive partnership in Younes Kaboul and Marc Wilson.
Hart has been thrilled by three shut-outs on the bounce from his men, and four in the past five games.
That has helped his team to a run of three wins, a draw and just a single defeat as their season finds momentum.
Pompey's eight-goal spree in the past two games has caught the eye, but Hart thinks it is the miserly defending which it is critical to his side's form.
Hart had praise for all of his back four and keeper David James.
But he highlighted the form of central duo Wilson and Kaboul who, at 22 and 23 respectively, are comfortably the youngest pairing in that position in the top flight.
Hart said: 'The clean sheets are so important. If you look at the way we have played, we concede a bit of ground to teams when we play like that, but the efforts to get around the pitch and close people down has been astonishing.
'Tal Ben-Haim, since he moved to full-back, hasn't put a foot wrong – he's been magnificent.
'Steve Finnan has done great, Nadir Belhadj came on and is defending better than ever. I know he made a couple of mistakes earlier this season but we've been working with him every day and there has been a massive improvement.
'The two centre-backs must be the youngest partnership in the Premier League. They are only 23 and 22 and have been superb, while the goalkeeper continues to defy the laws of gravity, age and everything else.'
Saturday's success over Wigan saw Pompey take their league total to seven points – all of them arriving in October.
But they still remain at the foot of the table ahead of this weekend's trip to Blackburn.
Hart again paid tribute to the character of his men, and believes their performances this season have warranted a much greater points return.
He said: 'They all get on well and they are a good group of lads.
'They have had unbelievable things to cope with but they have never complained and they have never shown a sign of going under. They are superb professionals.
'Even when we had 14 or 15 players for those first five games, I was pleased.
'We were in all of them apart from the Arsenal game. We should be on 14 or 15 points now.
'You could never look at them and say that they don't care.'
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Weather for Portsmouth
Sunday 12 February 2012
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