Portsmouth boss' hails brilliant Blues after answering 'toughest test' to conquer Bolton

For John Mousinho, it was Pompey’s ‘biggest test’ of the season - and they passed emphatically.

Bolton hadn’t lost in any competition for more than two months, winning 10 of their last 11 appearances, including the 7-0 demotion of Exeter.

Yet they were dismantled by the brilliant Blues in front of the Sky television cameras on Monday night as Mousinho’s men ran out 2-0 winners.

Despite missing leading scorer Colby Bishop through injury, it was a powerful display in front of the Fratton faithful as Pompey extended their lead at the top of League One to six points.

And their head coach is convinced it provided more proof this group of players are going somewhere.

Mousinho told The News: ‘Going into the game, I felt it was probably our biggest test this season.

‘Bolton are on a magnificent run, they have put seven past teams, they are dominating games for the most part, and have a huge amount of attacking firepower.

‘I certainly think Peterborough are really, really strong in this league as well. However, there’s a lot to take from the Bolton game in terms of how we nullified them, especially in the second half.

‘We want to make sure we don’t get too carried away with what we did against Bolton, but part of me wants us to realise the fact that we played that well - and got our rewards - against one of the best sides in the league.

‘If we do that week in, week out, then we’re going to have a chance this year.

‘There was a huge amount of pressure coming into the game, we didn’t perform particularly well when we last played at Fratton Park, so to bounce back with two away victories and that, I am delighted for the boys.

‘The first half was really well contested, Bolton caused us a couple of problems, Paris Maghoma was a bright spark and caused us a couple of issues, Dion Charles missing from a yard is a nice bonus for us and he won’t do that too many times a season.

‘But I thought it was about right that we went in at half-time a goal up considering the amount of opportunities we had.

‘In the second half we were magnificent, Will was largely a spectator, we pressed, we won the ball back, we kept going at them.

‘The only criticism I would have, which is really picky, is we didn’t take advantage of a few of those. The one time we did have a bit of quality in the final third we ended up scoring the second goal.’

Since Pompey lost 4-0 against Blackpool, they have racked up three wins, three clean sheets and scored seven goals.

It has been quite a response to that set-back as they maintain the promotion pace in League One.

Mousinho added: ‘We are as good as where we finish up this season. At the moment we are obviously top of the league, I am delighted with the performance the boys put in.

‘We have to back that up at Shrewsbury on Saturday. It’s going to be very, very different, we aren’t going to have the raucous atmosphere that we produce at Fratton, we have to motivate ourselves in a different way.

‘The one thing I would say about this group, though, is whenever they have been asked that question, they’ve done it. They haven’t relied on the crowd at Fratton solely to pick up points because we have done it away from home and I know they are going to be very, very professional about how they go about their business.’