Crewe's pitch was unplayable when Pompey visited last month - and it wasn't a whole lot better this time.

But Danny Cowley was delighted by the way his players adapted to the difficult surface at Gresty Road to keep their fine League One run going - recording a sixth win in seven games.

The boss told the club website: 'It was an extremely professional performance from us on what was a very difficult surface. We were facing a Crewe side who are dangerous when they go behind, but we stayed compact and were ruthless on the counter-attack.

'The early goal certainly gave us a good place in the game and that allowed us to pick them off, although perhaps we could have seen it out with more control. We were a little bit disjointed at the end after making some changes to protect players, but I was pleased with a lot of what I saw.'

Cowley is buoyant at form that has pushed Pompey back to the fringes of the play-off race. He added: 'That’s 19 points from the past 21 available, which is nice return and we needed to be humble, driven and together.

'We’ve invested a lot of time and energy into this fixture, having to come here twice, and have spoken about the fans making that journey. It was really important to us that we gave them a strong performance and make sure they had something to celebrate on that long journey home.'

Pompey now have two more away games to negotiate, both tough looking ones - they go to Ipswich on Saturday and Plymouth next Tuesday.

Photo: Action Images

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