Evans always confident goals would come for Portsmouth against Oxford United

The stand-in skipper had an opportunity to break the deadlock in the 24th minute from the 12-yard spot, after Oli Hawkins had been fouled by Jamie Hanson.

However, Evans saw his effort saved by U's keeper Jonathan Mitchell and the two sides went into half-time at a goalless stalemate.

Yet the former Fleetwood Town midfielder and boss Kenny Jackett were bullish they'd maked a breakthrough in the second period.

It was Evans who opened the scoring, rectifying his earlier error by rifling home a left-foot shot just three minutes after the restart.

Pompey then turned the screw , with a Jamal Lowe double and a Rob Dickie own goal giving the hosts a 4-1 victory.

And Evans was impressed by the Blues' display.

He said: '˜That keeper has made a good save and it's just one of those things. The gaffer asked before the game who wants to take penalties and I was quite keen on taking them.

'˜I've taken them for the club before and with Brett (Pitman) not being on the pitch I stood in for him.

'˜If he's still not on the pitch I'll still take them.

'˜I was gutted (to miss) but I always knew we were playing well and needed to keep our heads up and the goals were going to come. When you miss a penalty, you hope it's not going to matter too much and thankfully that turned out to be the case.

'˜Oxford have got some good players and a manger who knows what he is doing at this level '“ I'm sure he will get it right. To outclass them and out-muscle them in the way we did was really pleasing.

'˜We had some really good chances in the first half and were disappointed not to have gone ahead.

'˜But the gaffer told us to keep doing the right things, keep up the habits and the goals would come.

'I was pleased because I wanted to cancel out the penalty miss '“ I can only apologise for that!

'You've got to try to keep your head up and thankfully it didn't matter in the end.'