Town boss Paul Cook felt his side’s 4-0 demolition of his former club Portsmouth was as complete a performance as the Blues have put in this season.

Macauley Bonne, scoring his 10th goal of the campaign, Conor Chaplin, Sone Aluko and Wes Burns scored the goals as Town romped to their first win at Fratton Park since 2012 and their first 4-0 away victory since beating Reading at the Madejski Stadium in April 2018.

Asked whether the game could have gone much better, Cook was keeping his feet very much on the ground.

“It’s keep going, it’s boring,” he insisted. “I said to you the other day, you’ve got to go away, you’ve got to analyse, you’ve got to look at what you do and what you can do to get better.

“Tonight, I think we’ve seen at probably a really tough place to go as complete a performance as we’ve had this season, and that’s really pleasing.

“I’m so pleased for our supporters who travel. We see the support behind that goal, no different than Cambridge on Saturday, we said at half-time ‘You have to score in front of those fans, you have have to give them that momentum that they want to give you to carry you home’.

“And we did that in abundance tonight and I’m delighted for the supporters and I’m delighted for the players.”

Town have now netted 27 goals in 13 league matches, more than anyone else in the division.

“We’ve got goals in the team, I think that’s apparent to everyone,” Cook continued. “We’ve got a striker [Bonne] at the minute who’s red hot. We’ve got a number 10 in Chaplin, who is so infectious in everything he does, and around that lads are growing.

“We made a few changes tonight and we’ll keep doing that when we think that’s right. But tonight it was a really good team performance, it was a good squad performance, it was everything that I like about coming away from home.

“If you look at our subs on Saturday, we’ve made similar subs today with the seven, 10 and 11 coming on. But on Saturday when it goes wrong you get absolutely slaughtered and tonight you don’t, and that’s football. Three days in football is a long time.”

He added: “Our lads were excellent, I’m just pleased. [Toto] Nsiala came in and Nsiala’s an absolutely man mountain at times. [George] Edmundson moved to the left.

“It’s just a good night and the important thing is whether we can follow it up at Portman Road on Saturday as supporters will turn out again.

‘We’ve given them a taste now again that we could be on the road. What we can’t do is continually take a step forward and two back. We’ve taken one forward tonight, we’ll make sure we’ll try and take another one on Saturday.

“Listen, we just keep going, you know me. My messages are the same, I said the other day, you don’t get medals in October, there’s no promotions, there’s no relegations, you just stay focus and work.

“Tonight we’ve shown we can go to probably one of the toughest away grounds in the country and we can win. We’ve got to make sure we keep that going.”

Asked how pleasing the clean sheet was, Cook said: “If you’d have said to me before the game if you win 4-3 would you be happy, I’d be doing handstands.

“The reality is we’ve got goals in us, we’re the highest scorers in the division. The goals against hurts, and it hurts us all.

“You leave Cambridge on Saturday and we’re all devastated because if we’d seen that out, our league position now would look very, very healthy.

“And your league position changes very quickly when you win. It doesn’t when you lose. The reality for us now 13 games in is just keep going.”

Quizzed on whether it was good to have keeper Christian Walton back in the side, Cook said: “I won’t single people out, I don’t do things like that. Tonight we had a lot of good performances in the team and if you go away from home you have to have men on the pitch, and tonight we had a lot of good men.”

He added: “We’ve been so much better since we played Accrington. We just didn’t turn up and our supporters, probably 1200 of them travelled home on the floor.

“Since then we turned up at Cambridge but we made some individual mistakes and made those individual mistakes at crucial times. The goal before half-time at Cambridge absolutely changed the game, changed the whole atmosphere in the stadium.

“Tonight, everything that’s supposed to go your way as a visiting team went our way, and we made that happen. We didn’t wait for Portsmouth, we went on to them in the second half and I’m delighted for the players and I’m more than happy for the supporters, that’s for sure.

“A lot gets written and a lot gets said and for managers now, we’ve got so many new staff and players come in. How long does it take to change cultures at football clubs? You can’t do it in a short space of time.

“Unfortunately, for all football managers now, we get judged that quick it’s not right. Whether it’s good or bad, it’s not right. So for me, I just stay level-headed, I just keep going.

“Now all my attention will be on Fleetwood travelling back tonight and we’ve got to do our best to win. Because if we beat Fleetwood on Saturday, all of a sudden the table looks different, we’re probably be in the first half for the first time, which I’ll get excited about, and our supporters get a little bit happy.

“And that’s the most important thing, our owners and our supporters, that’s for sure.”

Town have now been in front at half-time in each of their last six away games in all competitions with today the third that they have won.

“I told our players in the dressing room, we’ve got a habit of taking the lead away and the whole country will be watching you now, 2-0 up, 3-0 up and you’ll give it up.

“All of a sudden you can change your habits by changing what you do on the pitch, and that’s the most important thing.

“Our lads are watching videos, clips, repetition, habits and tonight I’m just happy after a really strong team performance.

“If you manage big clubs and you play for big clubs, you have to put up with pressure. I get you lads [the media] asking me different questions every week and my answers are quite similar. I’m as good as the players.

“When you leave grounds like Accrington you’re on the floor as a manager. You leave Fratton Park on a high.

“The brutal reality is that in my world you’ll only be judged over a period of time. If our lads’ habits stay consistent like they are getting now and get better, the reality is we’ll grow and get better as a team.”

Pompey boss Danny Cowley admitted that his side, who have won just one of their last 10 in the league, losing six, has a tendency to wilt when things go against them.

“It was unacceptable, we were shamed — and I will take complete responsibility for it,” Cowley told the Portsmouth News.

“It’s my job to make sure the players are in the right place to perform at their best and they were well short.

“There’s a weakness in our group when things go against us. For 40 minutes it was a competitive League One game, there’s very little in it, then we make a mistake which leads to a goal.

“It’s not the goal which cost us the game, it’s the way we responded. We didn’t show anywhere near the qualities in that moment.

“Every single person within our group has the responsibility of going away, looking at themselves and seeing what more they can give to help this team.

“In the moment of difficulty and adversity we don't have anywhere near the solutions that we need. Sometimes it’s hard to put in what God left out.

“We were well short in terms of the qualities I would expect from my players.

“Until the opening goal it was a competitive League One game with very little in it against a very good team. But as soon as anything goes against us, we fold.”

Regarding his club’s fans, he added: “We as a football club let them down, we let them down.

“It’s really hard for me to stand here and say that. It’s not through the want of trying, but we let them down.”

Photos: TWTD/PagePix

Bluroo added 09:27 - Oct 20 The 2nd half was obviously excellent but it was built on a really solid 1st half. All in all the best performance for 3 years. Donny were rubbish, whereas last night I think we knocked the stuffing out of a half decent side. I hope Walton and Toto keep their places in the side until they deserve to be dropped because I've been feeling that Hladky and Burgess have been underperforming and responsible for several goals against (think they are ok players just slow to settle and build confidence). No reason why this team couldn't go on a several game winning run, we can beat anyone in this league if we can keep clean sheets. Still have my reservations about Cook if he could just be a bit more pragmatic with his substitutions when we're 1 goal up and 15 mins to go I'd sleep a lot easier! COYB

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Bluroo added 09:32 - Oct 20 Regarding substitutions - Cook is saying he made the same sort of attacking position substitutions against Cambridge as he did against Portsmouth yet one minute he's a zero the next he's a hero. Surely he's not oblivious to the fact we were hanging on in 1 game but cruising in the other??? Just surprised by that comment either he gives fans no credit or he's a bit simple…

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blueboy1981 added 09:38 - Oct 20 Goes to prove to any doubters, what PC and the Team are capable of. No one has ever been able to run before they can walk. Maybe beyond some, but TRY and understand that this is the process our Club is going through. Well Done Paul Cook - you're proving your point - we are progressing for SURE !!
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number8 added 10:07 - Oct 20 Still October and we are on the rise. A long way to go but the season was never over and this win is not solved every problem. However, anyone that can,t see is this looking far better than last few years. We started well then but that doesn't mean anything either. I do believe progress is happening it will be slower than we all want but we will get there and it's not in the realms of fantasy that promotion will happen this year!!!

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DaGremloid added 10:43 - Oct 20 There are also some idiots on here who think that anyone who criticizes Cook also wants the club to lose. Really? What evidence do you have for that then? I don't like Cook - never have - but the club I have supported for 58 years will always come above that. I loved last night's win so how f***ing dare some of you assume I want my club to lose to prove a point.
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Linkboy13 added 11:36 - Oct 20 It's incredible we've gone from a team (last season) that didn't look like scoring to a team that's got goals all over the pitch. Dispite our unsettled start to the season the entertainment has always been good backed up by the size of the crowds at Portman road. There's been a lot of criticism of the negative remarks on this website. People are entitled to their views this is the idea of a website. Most of them that are not constructive i tend to ignore eventually they go away.

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Northstandveteran added 11:46 - Oct 20 Indeed DeGremloid. Those of us that find our club mid table of the third division and aren't delighted about that do seem to be vilified when Ipswich win. I'm sure that you and others that haven't been overly impressed with things so far would like nothing else than Cook, or for that matter, whoever the manager is, to succeed. Childish comments like " Where are the doubters and negs " and " Happy clappers " infuriate me. We all want town to win every game but we all have different opinions. And from your post, having lived through the Robson years, I should imagine you are even more depressed about the current position than us sprightly 46 year olds! 😂

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FrankMarshall added 12:36 - Oct 20 Very impressive win and outstanding result. However, not impressed with our season so far. Should be in top 6 at the very least.
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SpiritOfJohn added 12:47 - Oct 20 Firstly, a brilliant win last night, so well done to the manager and the players. However, this statement from PC has me a little worried: "If you look at our subs on Saturday, we've made similar subs today with the seven, 10 and 11 coming on. But on Saturday when it goes wrong you get absolutely slaughtered and tonight you don't, and that's football. Three days in football is a long time.” At Cambridge on Saturday he took off our best player on the day (Oluko) first, whereas last night he took off our least effective player of the night (Edwards) first. On Saturday he took off Chaplin next and replaced him with Celina, but last night he replaced Chaplin with Harper (a move that made us stronger defensively and arguably what he should have done on Saturday). It worries me that Cook refuses to admit the possibility that he got his subs wrong against Cambridge, but I'm hoping that he is just saying that as bravado for the interview and realises his mistakes when he analyses his own performances.

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Cadiar added 12:57 - Oct 20 GB1 i've got well past the moon-heading towards Jupiter at the moment. A great result against a club that have always been a bit close to me-they did let us have two of our greatest players, Mills & Crawford. Hope the old Jungle Boy isn't too down today. (I lived on the IOW for 20 years so had many Pompey friends) Hae to question so called supporters like Warwick Blue who seem to need to have a pop at PC whatever. A totally pointless & stupid comment. I would be bigging Bonne up plus all the team, good to see that Donacien is doing so well and Toto comes back to scare anyone who looks at him. More than anything I am so happy that we are now an entertaining team win, lose or draw. I bet there are still people on here who would have MM back, he'll be looking for a job soon, McDonalds are always looking for staff

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GiveusaWave added 13:49 - Oct 20 Great result! Well done to Paul Cook and the team..... Understand the frustration of some fans...but hopefully this result will make a few fans stop discussing relegation etc... We are defo heading in the right direction...only a few points now between us and the play-offs. A 1 or 2-0 win over Fleetwood would help a few more fabs to believe. We will go up either next season or (there is a small chance) this....

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DaGremloid added 14:06 - Oct 20 Northstandveteran - I would LOVE to be a sprightly 46 year old again! But not at the expense of missing out on the fabulous glory years! Thanks for your support. I really am sick and tired of being vilified just because I have an opinion. As you say, mid-table in the 3rd division isn't a success story but I genuinely hope this changes over the next 12-18 months whether Cook is at the helm or not. In my book people have to earn my trust and respect and Cook ain't there yet, but that's not to say he won't. I'm just not overly impressed so far overall, however nights like last night certainly make me feel better. Have a good one.

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Eddie1985 added 08:11 - Oct 21 Dagremloid is spot on. I want town to win every game and am delighted when they do. I'm not a fan of cook but would love him to prove me wrong and take us up and beyond. We'll done to the team and Paul Cook for a great away win, let's have a few more to take us closer to the top please
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