Gaffer: All I'm saying is Portsmouth will probably make the play-offs at least!

So six wins out of seven now for Pompey, what are your thoughts?

I wasn’t enjoying the first half, Reading were giving it a good go, their fans were noisy and I was thinking 'This could be where the wheels come off'. Then Paddy Lane scored.

In previous seasons, we wouldn’t have got that goal and just crumbled, we’d have lost that game. It’s the player togetherness which really impresses me and Marlon Pack is a big part of that as a captain.

They work so hard for each other. Someone plays a ball that's slightly short and there are two or three of our players chasing around after it. Even when things weren’t going for us in the first half, Colby Bishop ran himself into his ground.

We were a different team in the second half, there was even a bit of swagger when we went 3-0 up.

Who was your man of the match?

Pack has been absolutely superb this season and Saturday was another example. He just doesn’t give up. If things aren’t going right he’s the one driving the team on.

I know he didn’t do an Abu Kamara and provide three assists, but he’s the heartbeat of this team and such a clever player. It’s those passes he slots in, he breaks things up, he drives everyone to that higher performance

Kamara has done so well for us, he’s far exceeded my expectations, it was a very close-run thing between them for man of the match.

But it was Marlon’s overall performances and that second goal, which was crucial for settling nerves.

Do you have sympathy for Reading’s plight?

I really find it depressing and disappointing that, having gone through what we’ve gone through, some Pompey fans were revelling in Reading’s financial struggles.

We should be better than that, we saved our club, we survived and are going strong. We need to be a bit more charitable, show more empathy to the Reading fans, who are enduring a torrid season off the pitch.

At the game there were chants of ‘Pay Up Reading’, there were songs about the HMRC, there was ‘Who’s that coming over the hill, is it the taxman?’. I don’t think that was particularly classy.

No-one wants to see another club go out of business, luckily we came out the other side. Hopefully they’ll get things resolved, get rid of the owner and have somebody who actually has Reading’s interests at heart.

So how do you see Pompey’s season panning out?

Somebody sat behind me at half-time said 'If we win this, I’m going to start believing'.

Well, I believe we’ll probably make the play-offs at least, but it’s way too early to start thinking about automatic promotion.

We have six wins out of seven, which is way beyond I expected, and it appears we are over that post-Christmas blip, but there are some really hard games ahead.

We still have to play our promotion rivals, it’s all going to hinge on that. I’m not choosing my outfit for Southsea Common just yet!

Will Norris - 7

Joe Rafferty - 7

Sean Raggett - 8

Conor Shaughnessy - 8

Connor Ogilvie - 7

Marlon Park - 9

Owen Moxon - 7

Abu Kamara - 9

Callum Lang - 8

Paddy Lane - 9

Colby Bishop - 8