Nathan Thompson: Portsmouth exploited Plymouth's low confidence

The Pilgrims suffered a 5-1 home defeat at the hands of Peterborough last Saturday.

Today fellow high-fliers Pompey claimed a comfortable 3-0 triumph to strengthen their own promotion challenge.

Ronan Curtis scored twice and created the other in a man-of-the-match display, with Jamal Lowe also netting.

And Thompson, who appeared as a substitute for the injured Anton Walkes, said the Blues sensed vulnerability.

The right-back said: '˜We set our stall out early, were dominant from the start.

'˜You look at a Plymouth team coming off the back of a 5-1 defeat last weekend and confidence is saturated a little bit '“ you could see that as soon as we scored the second goal.

'˜I thought dealt with the atmosphere and were cool and collected, it was a good performance.

'˜They had a 10-minute period just before half-time when they got their tails up and we took off Hawks (Oli Hawkins) and it slowed the tempo of the game, so they got back into it.

'˜That is why it was important to start the second half strongly '“ and I thought the boys did that.

'˜It was a matter of then controlling it and taking our opportunities, which we did.'