Midfielder helps secure vital victory
It was a debut to forget for Toumani Diagouraga.
But after the nightmare of a 5-1 defeat at Scunthorpe, his home bow was a much more pleasant experience.
The on-loan Brentford midfielder played a key role as Pompey beat fellow strugglers Accrington.
Jake Jervis scored the only goal of the game early in the second half with a low drive into the bottom corner.
And Diagouraga enjoyed his first experience of playing for the Fratton faithful.
He said: “To get three points in front of the incredible home fans here was a great experience.
“I knew the crowd here were very good, but to play in front of them was unbelievable.
“I’ve been at a few clubs now and everyone has a bad day at the office sometimes like we did on Saturday.
“We just had to put it behind us and make sure produced a good performance in our next game – and that’s what we did.
“We were on top for most of the game. We sat back a bit more for the final 10 minutes, but that’s understandable when you’re trying to protect the win and I thought we were the better side.”
Diagouraga also revealed that he turned down higher-placed sides to move to Pompey earlier this month.
He said: “I had a few options, but after chatting with the manager I decided to come here. I could have stayed in League One, but Pompey are bigger than a lot of clubs in that division.
“It was frustrating to drop out of the side at Brentford and when they win a lot of games in a row it’s hard to get back in.
“But that’s football and I want to play as many games as I can here and help the team collect as many points as possible.”