Swansea boss Vitor Matos happy for an away win

Away form had been thwarting Swansea’s hopes of promotion, with nine defeats in the last 11 on the road before their 2-1 victory away at Portsmouth.

Swansea head coach Vitor Matos said: “I think we have had some good away performances without getting the points.

“We needed to improve to win games away and we have been trying. Today the mentality, resilience, organisation and performance were there.

“I am really happy for the club, the team and the fans.

“We expected Portsmouth to fight back. It is not an easy place to come and Portsmouth have a lot of weapons.

“Putting on pressure and controlling the space in behind is not easy so towards the end the fatigue hit and the bench was important to help the team.

“Some games you have to win it with more than controlling the ball and I think we did that today.

“When you have a 2-0 game it can be quite tricky as it can turn quickly.

“The first half was a very good performance.”

John Mousinho was furious with Portsmouth’s first-half performance in their defeat to the Welsh club.

Ethan Galbraith and Josh Key netted eye-catching goals while Pompey regularly gave away possession and lost duels in the opening period.

And despite Jacob Brown pulling one back after the break, Portsmouth lost at Fratton Park for a third straight match and sit just four points above the Championship relegation zone.

Pompey boss Mousinho said: “We were really poor in the first half and much improved in the second. We nearly got ourselves back into it but we gave ourselves too much to do.

“It is very disappointing. You think where was the intent in the first half? Where was the aggression and front-footedness?

“Pretty much everything went wrong. We were a couple of yards off everything. Regardless of how good Swansea were good on the ball, we didn’t do much right.

“It was like the first time we had seen a ball in the first half. We gave it away relentlessly.”

Dominated

He added: “I don’t think the Sheffield United and Hull defeats are too much of an issue.

“I thought we dominated both those games and were unlucky not to come away with more.

“Tonight was the first time we have played as poorly as that. We didn’t put in a proper home performance in the first 45 minutes.

“Regardless of whether you are playing home or away, you can’t perform like that.”

Galbraith opened the scoring with a fantastic first-time shot from the edge of the box before Key looped a deflected shot over Nicolas Schmid to double the lead.

Brown grabbed his first Portsmouth goal, after joining from Luton in January, with a fine header but the Swans held on to boost their play-off hopes.