Gary Roberts, Amine Linganzi og Jack Whatmough (bildet) scoret da Pompey vant 3-0 i den svært viktige bortekampen mot Carlisle.

Med tap ville vi vært ni poeng bak Carlisle på 3. plass – som er den siste plassen som gir direkte opprykk – men med seier borte mot opprykksrivalen er nå avstanden kun tre poeng (og vi har én kamp mindre spilt). Det betyr at Pompey nå selv kan sikre seg opprykket uten hjelp fra andre i sesonginnspurten.

Fram til Gary Roberts ga oss ledelsen på en flott soloprestasjon i 2. omgang, hadde det vært en jevn kamp. Begge lag hadde noen store sjanser til å ta ledelsen, og Carlisle hadde også grunn til å føle seg snytt for et straffespark.

Men så kom scoringen til Roberts et drøyt kvarter før slutt. En soloscoring som endte med at Robert plasserte ballen med yttersiden av sin venstrefot helt oppe i hjørnet. En nydelig scoring. Etter det hadde Pompey ganske bra kontroll, men to sene scoringer av Amine Linganzi og Jack Whatmough sørget for svært komfortable sifre.

Kommentarer fra manager Paul Cook

«I’m in a good mood and am delighted with the result, but you won’t see me get too carried away. We’ve got two home games coming up now and if we can stamp our authority on them then imagine where we could be next Saturday night. It means so much to our fans, so let’s enjoy the win and they’ll have a good trip home, but now our focus turns to Tuesday night.

“The substitutes had a big impact, while Eoin Doyle had some great chances and Fordey made some agile saves. The way we set up to play means the first goal is huge because teams then have to come out more. “We’re strong at the back and we can change formations to see games out. But Jack was supposed to be concentrating on keeping a clean sheet, not scoring goals!

“That’s one of the best days we’ve had as a club for a long time. It’s about time we won a really big crunch game. But there’s such a long way to go, so let’s keep going and let’s all just keep believing.” 

Kommentarer fra målscorer Jack Whatmough

«It it was my first goal for the club and something I’ve waited a long time for. It means a lot to me. I saw that there was a gap to run into and knew that we were safe at the back, so I just went for it. Conor was there as well and I thought that he was more likely to score, but it fell to me and so I hit it as hard as I could.

The manager just asked me to keep a clean sheet and thankfully we were able to do that. But I was able to get one myself and we also got another two, so it was a really good day overall for this club.

I thought that we controlled the game pretty well and to come to a place like this and get three goals is impressive. We’ve got massive spirit in this squad and it’s nice to see the bench going mad whenever we score. We were clinical in what we did and were able to get a massive result to help close the gap on the top three. It’s a step closer to where we want to be.”

League Two, Brunton Park, 25/2-2017

Carlisle – Portsmouth 0-3 (0-0)

73. min. 0-1 Gary Roberts

86. min. 0-2 Amine Linganzi

90. min. 0-3 Jack Whatmough

Pompey (4-2-3-1): Forde; Evans, Burgess, Clarke, Stevens; Linganzi, M.Doyle (c); Baker (Whatmough 72), Roberts (Naismith 80), Bennett (Chaplin 72); E.Doyle

Gult kort: Ingen på Pompey

Ikke benyttede reserver: O’Brien, Rose, Lowe, Hunt

Tilskuere: 7.197 (1.209 Pompey-fans)