Gaffer: Portsmouth red card was ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. It's a clean tackle

How do you assess Pompey’s display?

What was really nice was we started well and scored early, which we haven't had a history of doing. Suddenly it’s a different game.

Something which also seems to have changed, certainly from Tuesday night, is we moved the ball a lot quicker and that made quite a big difference. We weren't ponderous and passing square across the back.

I know John talks about patience and that’s still there, but it’s about picking passes. Callum Lang had added a new dimension for us and we look threatening all the time, which is brilliant to see.

Certainly it’s one of the better performances this season. I expected a bit more from Northampton because they've had a few reasonable results, but we restricted them to virtually nothing until late on.

What did you make of Tom McIntyre’s sending off?

It was hard for us to see because we were at the top of North Stand, down towards the Fratton End, so it’s a long way away.

However, immediately it looked harsh and, having seen the replays, it ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.

It’s a good clean tackle, I’m not sure what he’s supposed to do with his foot when he goes in for that tackle. It looks extremely harsh.

I was actually more worried about McIntyre’s injury rather than getting sent off. I would have thought they’ll now appeal it, unless his injury will keep him out for three games anyway.

Who was your star man?

It has to be Paddy Lane. It wasn’t just the goals, but the all-round contribution was good as well.

There were lots of complaints from people before the game when they saw the line-up, saying it should have been Lane left out rather than Abu Kamara, but I disagreed with them.

Lane goes looking for the ball, he did that against Northampton, he was in the game the whole time, which was impressive about him.

Yes his end product sometimes isn’t quite what you’d like it to be, but on Saturday he was on it from the start and a constant threat.

His second, in particular, was fantastic, exactly the sort of goal we have been crying out for. Turn the ball over, move it quickly, one good pass, a touch and bang.

So how do you see the season panning out?

I would say I’m cautiously optimistic. I feel a lot happier than I have done recently because suddenly we have more of a threat going forward, which is helpful.

As we’ve seen this weekend, other teams are under pressure. It’s fine having games in hand, but winning those games in hand is really tough. There will be a few twists and turns and it may come down to the games that we play against the top teams.

If we play to our potential 11 times in the remaining 15 games then we’ll be fine, we’ll go up in the automatics.

Will Norris - 7

Joe Rafferty - 8

Conor Shaughnessy - 8

Tom McIntyre - 7

Connor Ogilvie - 8

Marlon Pack - 8

Tom Lowery - 9

Paddy Lane - 9

Callum Lang - 9

Myles Peart-Harris - 7

Colby Bishop - 8