Naylor hails massive Portsmouth win at AFC WimbledonÂ

Goal-hero Tom Naylor hailed Pompey's '˜massive' AFC Wimbledon triumph.
Tom Naylor embraces Jack Whatmough after his opening goal in Pompeys 2-1 win at AFC Wimbledon. Picture: Joe PeplerTom Naylor embraces Jack Whatmough after his opening goal in Pompeys 2-1 win at AFC Wimbledon. Picture: Joe Pepler
Tom Naylor embraces Jack Whatmough after his opening goal in Pompeys 2-1 win at AFC Wimbledon. Picture: Joe Pepler

It was swiftly back to winning ways for the League One leaders following the previous weekend's 2-0 defeat to Gillingham.

After a maiden loss of the league campaign, the Blues registered a 1-0 Checkatrade Trophy victory at Crawley on Tuesday night.

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For Naylor, though, the league response for the Kingsmeadow trip was always going to be telling.

Tom Naylor embraces Jack Whatmough after his opening goal in Pompeys 2-1 win at AFC Wimbledon. Picture: Joe PeplerTom Naylor embraces Jack Whatmough after his opening goal in Pompeys 2-1 win at AFC Wimbledon. Picture: Joe Pepler
Tom Naylor embraces Jack Whatmough after his opening goal in Pompeys 2-1 win at AFC Wimbledon. Picture: Joe Pepler

And the two-time promotion winner with Burton was delighted to see a 2-1 outcome to maintain Pompey's placing at the top of the table.

Naylor said: '˜That was a massive result for us.

'˜It was a terrible first half against Gillingham, we were loads better in the second half but just left it too late.

'˜So it's always important to bounce back the following week with three points.

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'˜We are bound to lose games, that's just the way it is, but I've always said don't lose two on the bounce. We didn't, we got our win on Saturday.

'˜Losing is part and parcel of football, you can't win every game. It's how you react when you do lose a game.

'˜We won on Tuesday night, which was a confidence boost, and we won again on Saturday.

'˜We just need to keep working hard, continue going and to get over that line.'

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Naylor opened the scoring against AFC Wimbledon on 23 minutes, heading home Dion Donohue's right-wing corner.

It represented his maiden Pompey goal in 15 appearances since a summer move from Burton.

Gareth Evans doubled the Blues' advantage on 31 minutes, converting Lee Brown's left-wing cross.

If anything, that didn't reflect the superiority of Kenny Jackett's men.

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And when substitute James Hanson pulled one back of 63 minutes, the visitors had to dig in to see out victory.

Naylor added: '˜The game should have been game over at half-time. We had more chances for it to be 4-0 at half-time.

'˜After that, Wimbledon were always going to make it hard for us.

'˜At half-time it should have been game over '“ and 2-0 is a dangerous scoreline.

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'˜When Matt Clarke had that header cleared off the line, it would have been game over at 3-0, but they got the goal back, got some confidence and put a lot of pressure on us.

'˜We've got to stick together, every game we have to stick together. If we are under the cosh we have to come out as a team '“ and we did that.'

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