Danny Cowley on the crucial factor making all the difference as Portsmouth's flying form continues

The Blues put four goals past John Coleman’s side, despite being reduced to 10 men for 69 minutes after Marcus Harness’ first-half dismissal.

That made it five wins out of six for Cowley’s men, with 16 points collected in the process.

Pompey made the most of the chances, with a George Hirst double supplemented by efforts from Sean Raggett and Ryan Tunnicliffe.

Cowley saluted the ruthless manner in which his side took their opportunities to close the gap on the play-offs to seven points.

He said: ‘It was just really disciplined, professional performance.

‘We scored the goal to go 1-0 up and had a good place in the game.

‘Then Marcus got sent off and you’re thinking we have 10 men for a really long time against a very physical, aggressive Accrington team.

‘So I just want to credit the players really.

‘We played in a 5-3-1 shape and George Hirst, Aiden O’Brien and Ryan Tunnicliffe - the three of them were like six players for us.

‘They were just incredible against the ball, wanted to stay compact and not let anything through.

‘When you defend well counter-attack moments usually present themselves - and when they did I thought we were clinical in taking them.’

With Pompey down to 10 men for so long the visitors dominated possession, enjoying 71 per cent of the boy and having 25 shots on goal.

Despite those numbers, the Blues looked largely comfortable with Coleman’s men not creating too much in terms of clearcut opportunities.

Cowley was very pleased with the manner in which his side dealt with the height and physical threat the opponents posed throughout.

He added: ‘Accrington keep putting balls into the box and were such a physical threat.

‘Other than Sean McConville every other player is over six foot, but Gavin (Bazunu) and the defensive line dealt with everything which was thrown at them.’