Everton 0-1 Portsmouth - Report

At the fifth time of asking, Pompey finally recorded their first win of the season. Too add to this delight, the win was achieved away from home. Our last away win occurred on Boxing Day last year at Crystal Palace. This just shows how rare these are.

The winning goal came from an unlikely source. Everton striker Duncan Ferguson scored an own goal after connecting with a Laurent Robert corner. Too be honest, I don’t care where the goals come from, as long as they count for Pompey. We have been on the wrong end of two own goals this season, so maybe our luck was changing?

We were good value for this away win, with Lomano LuaLua striking the crossbar during the first half and our new Uruguayan international striker Dario Silva also coming close.

We did have our scares at the other end with recalled keeper Jamie Ashdown making a smart save to keep out a Mikel Arteta's free-kick. It was good to see Jamie back in the goal after many costly mistakes from former Liverpool keeper Sander Westerveld.

Portsmouth made a confident start to the game and twice LuaLua broke clear down the right, only to make a mess of his final delivery.

Richard Hughes was also denied a blatant penalty as he was held and pushed in his attempt to round David Weir, but referee Martin Atkinson waved away penalty appeals.

Portsmouth worked hard as a unit to deny Everton and their effort was underpinned by former Liverpool player Salif Diao who made some key challenges in a midfield anchor role.

Portsmouth were always looking to work the ball into the feet of the pacy front pair. Everton's attacking efforts were one-dimensional as they looked to find the head of Ferguson and hope Marcus Bent could feed off his knock-downs. This was food and drink of our dominating central defenders.

Overall, we deserved the win and I hope we continue to progress with this style of football. We look strong in defence, comfortable on the ball and break with pace and power.

wanc.co.uk's Pompey Man of the Match: Salif Diao