Gaffer: Fantastic display from Pompey

Kyle Bennett, left, congratulates Oli Hawkins after his second goal in Pompey's 2-0 win against MK Dons. Picture: Joe Pepler

Did you enjoy that then?

What a fantastic performance, no complaints, it was absolutely top class.

We’ve had home wins over the likes of Bristol Rovers and Fleetwood but, despite the scorelines, the displays were not that convincing.

You cannot say that about Saturday, in the first half especially we were quality. It was like last year, with us dominating games.

It was attacking football, nothing negative from us such as passing around the back.

A 100th Pompey appearance for Christian Burgess as well.

Along with Matt Clarke, Burgess is probably our most consistent player over the past couple of seasons.

Last year, he scored some important goals. I remember the one at Crawley, although never saw it because my head was still in my hands after Eoin Doyle had missed a penalty for us in the game.

He has always been solid for us and is top class at this level. We need to sign him up to a long-term deal before anyone else comes in for him.

I think without Burgess last season we may have struggled to go up because he was outstanding in a couple of games.

Plenty of good performances then?

Definitely, but I am going to give man of the match to Stuart O’Keefe.

I want to hand it to Oli Hawkins, who I have given the same rating of nine, but O’Keefe was quality in the middle of the park and kept things ticking all game.

His display in the first half alone was probably one of the best I have seen from a Pompey player in a year or two. He was quality.

O’Keefe was putting in challenges, getting everywhere, running from box-to-box, while I like how he keeps it simple.

As for Hawkins, he is more than a big man to lump balls forward to. He is able to take it down on his chest and play it out wide.

He also scored both goals in the match to take his tally to four since arriving.

How do you see Pompey’s season panning out?

We have some really hard games coming up in Doncaster, Blackburn and Bradford.

If we can get something out of Blackburn and Bradford in particular, I think we can really push on.

MK Dons aren’t a bad side but we make them look as if they weren’t in the same league as us. As for Fleetwood, they are below us on goal difference but we beat them too.