Knight: Grimsby fans glowing in respect for Pompey

Pompey unity on display after Kal Naismith's winner at Grimsby Picture: Joe Pepler

Admittedly, Express FM’s inability to broadcast because of problems with the Blundell Park facilities was not ideal.

However, it was instead interesting gauging the opposition’s view about Pompey’s 1-0 victory.

I found Mariners fans to be very magnanimous and in acceptance they were second best on the day.

In their words, Pompey were a very, very good team, the best they had seen all season, and it was lovely hearing people talking about us in such terms.

Often people can get bitter and twisted and I do sometimes feel we get the rough end of things, branded big-time Charlies.

So it was refreshing to speak to knowledgeable supporters who spoke glowingly about the team and our fans.

It took a late goal from Kal Naismith to get our just rewards, and what also was heartening was the reaction of the players in their celebration. That must have answered anyone wanting to question the team spirit.

We saw a togetherness which would not have happened if there was any kind of dressing-room split.

Now we must move on and get a result against Hartlepool this weekend.

We have seen what happens at Fratton Park following a good away win, most recently against Stevenage.

So Saturday’s good result must be built upon, especially against a Hartlepool team who lost 5-0 at home on the same day.

In the meantime, I’d like to apologise to everyone for those technical difficulties experienced by Express.

It was not our fault, to be perfectly honest, and Dave Bowers and Martin Hopkins do not deserve any grief from supporters obviously left disappointed.

Radio coverage requires a working ISDN line – and, unfortunately, the one allocated to us in the Blundell Park press box was broken.

Nobody knew why and the club’s staff were unable to resolve it in time for us to broadcast Pompey’s match.

Bunky and Scoop work for Express for practically nothing, put a lot of effort into their pre-match preparation and, of course, travelled four-and-a-half hours to Cleethorpes.

So you can imagine how frustrating it was for them, who instead had to broadcast off a mobile phone.

Being deaf in one ear, I couldn’t carry out the co-commentary work that way and watched the second half in the press room with some of their fans.

It is not Express’ fault, the one downside to what was a great day up north.