Pompey fans wanted to see unity - and got it

Is that the reaction the fans wanted?

The most important thing about Saturday for the supporters was to see how Stevenage had affected the team – and you would never have known that ever happened.

There was no hangover, no bitterness and the way they celebrated the goal demonstrated what it meant to the players. They want it.

We dominated throughout, defended comfortably and worked as a unit.

What amused me was their manager afterwards saying how disappointed he was with the result. Even their fans criticised his comments, admitting we battered them!

Which players stood out for you?

My man of the match is Danny Rose, it was a bit like watching Lassana Diarra at times!

He has such a low centre of gravity that when he gets the ball is difficult to knock off and can use his body movement to wrong foot the opposition and shift the attacking play.

Michael Doyle did well alongside him and, considering neither are particularly big, the pair of them didn’t shy away from a tackle against a large Grimsby side.

Credit to Christian Burgess, who ensured the hosts rarely threatened for 90 minutes, while Michael Smith worked tirelessly up front.

What did you make of the match-winning moment?

If Zlatan Ibrahimovic had scored that they would have been talking about it the whole of the next day!

Kal Naismith is a credit to the club. He was pretty much out and it would have been very easy to sulk and sit on a decent wage for a year or so.

But he has come back to make an impact and I would like to see him start against Hartlepool next week.

In my eyes, he has more than done enough to warrant a place in Paul Cook’s line-up.

So what happens next for Pompey?

We’ve seen great away performances followed by poor home performances a fair few times and I haven’t got a lot of confidence in the team stringing five or six wins in a row.

But next match is against Hartlepool, who lost 5-0 at the weekend. So a good place to start.

My ratings

David Forde 6

Gareth Evans 6

Christian Burgess 7

Matt Clarke 7

Enda Stevens 6

Michael Doyle 8

Danny Rose 8

Carl Baker 7

Gary Roberts 6

Kyle Bennett 7

Michael Smith 7