John Mousinho felt Pompey ‘got away with one’ as they defeated Millwall today.

But the Blues boss felt the victory was reward for his team’s endeavour at the end of a gruelling run of five games in the space of 13 days.

Thomas Waddingham’s late winner gave Mousinho’s men a 2-1 success and made it just a single loss in eight Championship fixtures.

The result came amid teeming rain as Storm Boelo hit Fratton Park, with the visitors taking the lead through Jenson Metcalfe before Lyndon Dykes’ own goal levelled things up.

Then came Waddingham’s winner eight minutes from time, though Mousinho was honest about the outcome in the final reckoning.

He said: ‘I’m delighted with the three points but my overriding feeling is this is the first time this season we’ve got away with one.

‘I don’t think we deserved it on the balance of play, but on the effort and work-rate of the lads to go again, again and again through a difficult schedule we did.

‘We were lucky to nick the win off a poor start to the second half and the defending in the first half.

‘I was really pleased, but I felt it was inevitable that in one of these games across this run we wouldn’t be at our fluid best.

‘But we stuck in it and did everything else really well.

‘On the level of performance and some of the chances we didn’t deserve to win the game, but in terms of having that bit of luck, the work-rate and ability to stick in games I felt we deserved one of those to go our way.’

Pompey gifted Millwall the lead when Schmid played the ball straight to Jenson Metcalfe, who scored the opener in the sixth minute.

Mousinho feels that goal came as a result of his team being instructed to play the ball out, with the alternative to go long against one of the most powerful back lines in the division.

He added: ‘Not many come out on top against those two centre-backs and that right-back.

‘So we had to think about things differently today. When we play through the lines and get the ball to the wingers we look quite good. When we played that sort of game against them I thought we looked quite good.’