A 'job done' performance from Pompey

There was a lot to like about Pompey at the Kassam on Saturday.

It was a "job done" away performance that had every ingredient we've come to anticipate from a John Mousinho side winning a game of football on the road - solidity in the back line, plenty of midfield substance and a real purpose in attack.

Even if you were to put his match-winning moment aside, Adrian Segecic had one of the most accomplished league debuts I can remember a Pompey player having for many a season.

His footballing diligence and application is sensational, not to mention his ferocity in striking the ball which we got glimpses of.

One league game is a small sample size, however his pre-season showings coupled with Saturday afternoon's display excite me for his campaign ahead.

The returning duo of Conor Shaughnessy and Regan Poole, albeit not error free, didn't strike me as a partnership 20 months in the making. John Swift demonstrated exactly what he can bring to the table for Pompey, Colby Bishop's surprise inclusion was a welcome one, and I think in part that allowed for Callum Lang to shine as he did.

It was only really the closing 20 minutes of the game where Pompey's slender one-goal advantage felt at risk, naturally invoking nervousness heightened by the desire to see the game through.

Part of me feels a less well equipped and prepared Pompey side may well have succumbed to the late Oxford pressure. Mousinho appears to now have his side in a place whereby we can compete from start to finish and emerge with a result befitting the performance.

It took a leafy weekend in West London midway through October last season for Pompey to register a league win, home or away. This time round that inaugural victory came on the opening weekend.

While Portsmouth will almost certainly have tougher tests on our travels this season, we know by now that winning anywhere away from home in the Championship is an achievement.

Mousinho credited his side's energy and challenged them to sustain it. A stern test for our Fratton Park curtain raiser next weekend (at home to Norwich) can't come soon enough.