Tom Naylor: Outstanding Portsmouth deserve to be topping League One after defeating Hull

It was first versus second at the KCOM Stadium this evening, with the Blues emerging victorious with a 2-0 triumph.

As a consequence, they exchanged positions with their hosts – while recording a fifth successive clean sheet.

Own goals from Jacob Greaves and Josh Magennis handed Pompey the win in a match of few goal-scoring opportunities for either side.

And skipper Naylor was proud of his team’s showing against Hull.

He told The News: ‘That was outstanding, I thought we were brilliant from start to finish.

‘Everyone was on their game, it was a professional performance and I think we deserve to be where we are in League One at the moment.

‘We were controlled. You look at their two big lads up front, which we knew was going to happen in the second half, we had spoken about it – and dealt with them well.

‘Magennis hit the bar, but that was the only time, everyone defended brilliantly from John Marquis to Craig MacGillivray.

‘The early goal is massive in any game and you could see the way we controlled the possession after going 1-0 up.

‘The pitch wasn’t the best to play on but we dealt with it, it was a solid performance from everyone.

‘I thought we were brilliant. We have defenders who love to defend, keeping clean sheets as a back four and as a team.

‘Hull put a lot of balls into the box and we defended well.’

Curiously, Pompey won 2-0 without actually having a shot on target.

Considering Jackett’s men are League One’s leading scorers, it’s a statistic which will surprise many.

Nonetheless, that’s 10 points from a tough run of four fixtures against promotion rivals.

And Pompey now head the table.

Naylor added: ‘We will take the scoreline all day long.

‘I didn’t know the stats, but that scoreline doesn’t lie. We don’t really dwell on that, we go again.

‘They had one shot, we didn't have any, but we won, that’s the main thing. The three points are brilliant.’