Peterborough United’s ‘high-calibre’ players were dominated at Portsmouth

A header from a free kick from centre-back Jack Whatmough and a25 yard screamer from midfielder Tom Naylor capped a dominant Pompey display in the second-half as they jumped above Posh into third place in the League One table.

Gallen told the Portsmouth News: “In the first half, we were good. I can’t say we had loads of clear-cut chances or efforts on goal, but we were in the ascendency and had the territory.

“We were good in the first half, but it was an excellent second-half performance. It was undoubtedly the best second-half performance we’ve delivered at Fratton Park since the fans were last here.

“The calibre and players they’ve got, with people like Jonson Clarke-Harris and Siriki Dembele, were a concern and every team has their chances to score.

“I did think we needed to score pretty quickly in the second half and when Ronan Curtis missed a good chance, I was disappointed.

“Then Lee Brown puts in a free-kick and Jack Whatmough makes in it 1-0, which is what we deserved.

“And Tom Naylor has got his own goal-of-the-season competition going! Again, it was nothing less than we deserved.

“You do worry that you’ll have the territory and approach play ,but the other team then goes down the other end and scores. That’s happened before, but thankfully it wasn’t to be today and we thoroughly deserved what we got.”

The match was watched by 2,000 home fans.