Portsmouth boss on what reclaiming top spot means from Bolton Wanderers means ahead of Fratton showdown

John Mousinho lauded the character of his Pompey troops for barging their way back to League One’s summit ahead of the Bolton battle.

And the Blues boss refused to downplay the significance of his team bouncing back with two away victories to reclaim their berth at the top, after being toppled by their promotion rivals last weekend.

Mousinho’s men flexed their muscle at Northampton, with a dominant 3-0 victory against upwardly mobile opposition in sub-zero temperatures.

That made it 16 league away league games without defeat for the Pompey road warriors, with back-to-back maximums on their travels after the Burton Albion success.

Mousinho made no bones about the fact losing their perch at the top of the table hurt, after their club-record 27-game unbeaten run ended against Blackpool last weekend.

So he wasn’t hiding what it meant to take back that spot, with the mouth-watering clash with Ian Evatt’s men up next.

Mousinho said: ‘It’s a massive plus point. To go as long as we have done and then fall behind last Saturday - it’s a tough one to take, I think.

‘It’s a tough one in a good way, we want the boys to feel that disappointment. We also want them to bounce back and hold on to what they’ve got at the moment.

‘They are top of the league. They thoroughly deserve it on that performance and they thoroughly deserve it over the course of the 19 games they’ve played.’

Mousinho made it clear his team would enjoying their recovered position over the coming days, but there was no hiding away from what comes next in a serious challenge from Ian Evatt’s powerful Trotters side.

He added: ‘It’s quite nice to look at that over the next few days, but what we’ve got next is a really tough game against Bolton a week Monday - we’ve now got to be properly prepared for that.’