Portsmouth boss hails ruthless League One leaders after Sunderland silenced

League One's long-time leaders inflicted only a second league defeat of the campaign on the Black Cats during a pulsating second-half this afternoon.

Moments after the interval, with the score goalless, Glenn Loovens was dismissed after clumsily bringing down Oli Hawkins when through inside the box.

From that point, Gareth Evans netted the penalty, with Ronan Curtis and Ben Thompson also scoring, while Luke O'Nien registered for the visitors.

At the campaign's halfway mark, Pompey have now seen off one of their major promotion rivals at Fratton Park.

And Jackett was quick to praise his players for their decisive second-half showing.

He said: '˜Obviously I'm delighted with the win, particularly the second-half performance, but congratulations to the players for getting the 50 points before Christmas, it shows good consistency.

'˜I thought the first half was quite a cagey game and there was a big chance for Lynden Gooch just before half-time where MacGillivray has saved with his legs, which is a terrific save and a key save.

'˜Then obviously there was the sending off.

'˜After that (red card) I am pleased to say we didn't show any nerves, we took the game to them and didn't back off, which is pretty easy to slip into when you are ahead against 10-men.

'˜We deserved the three goals and could have had more.

'˜We did stay in control of the play, which is what you want against 10-men, it doesn't always happen, particularly when you have a lead, but for us we really pushed on from that point and created a high number of chances.

'˜We took three of them, which got us the win, and capitalised on a man advantage, which is good to see and not as easy as you always think.'