Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho hailed his players after watching them take a giant step towards Championship survival with an eye-catching 5-3 win at Norwich.
However, Mousinho also warned that he does not think Pompey are safe just yet.
The Blues are six points clear of the drop zone with just three games remaining after Colby Bishop struck his first Portsmouth hat-trick, with Matt Ritchie and Regan Poole also on target.
Mousinho said: “Nothing is done until it’s done.
“It was a massive three points for us today, no doubt about that, but we won’t say we are safe until it is mathematically certain.
“On a number of occasions recently we have had good result and have not been able to follow it up so we have to make sure we a ready to go again against Watford on Monday.”
While staying understandably cautious, Mousinho was delighted with his side’s performance as Bishop’s treble guided them to only a third away win of the season.
“There have been some good performances in some of our away games recently, and we could easily have picked up some points – but today I thought everything came together,” he said.
“I said to the players that we should have the belief that we can compete against sides like Norwich, that when we do the right things we can win games.
“I was obviously delighted with the goals – but the performance was really good too. We scored five, could have had more ,and I would say this is one of best performances from the team since I have been here.”
As for hat-trick hero Bishop he added: “I am delighted for Colby – that’s 10 goals for the season, not bad considering the time he has been out.
“But even when he is not scoring he leads the line so well, he is a nightmare for defenders. His workrate and intensity is incredible.”
Bishop opened the scoring after 15 minutes when he headed home Ritchie’s cross but Josh Sargent quickly fired home his 15th goal of the season to level.
Pompey then scored three goals either side of the interval to take command,.
Ritchie converted a low cross from ex-Canary Josh Murphy to restore the visitors’ lead before Bishop converted from the spot just before the break and then completed his hat-trick with an assured close range finish after more good work from Murphy.
Norwich substitute Jack Stacey pulled one back just after the hour mark with a smart finish but any thoughts of a home comeback were swiftly snuffed out as defender Poole’s sweetly struck low shot made it 5-2.
Emi Marcondes’ glancing header from a corner reduced the deficit, but it was small consolation for Norwich who were booed off at the end.
Norwich head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup was understandably disappointed with his side’s display.
“All of us are sorry for this performance,” he said. “It pains me to say it but I thought Portsmouth showed more desire than we did today.
“You are always going to find it difficult if you defend like we did – every time they put a cross into the box it seemed to cause us problems.
“At times we are so easy to play against – too often there was no purpose in our passing, we were not hard enough when we needed to be hard.”
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