Boss full of praise for goal hero
Jed Wallace threatened to break a few Pompey hearts on Valentine’s Day.
The midfielder blazed a second half penalty over the bar after Exeter’s Christian Ribeiro had brought down Matt Tubbs.
But he made up for the miss by grabbing a last-gasp winner with a cool finish past Grecians keeper Christy Pym.
And Andy Awford was delighted with the way Wallace recovered from his setback to secure all three points.
The Blues boss said: “There was a long time between us winning the penalty and Jed taking it – a lot can go through your mind.
“But he’ll step up again and take the next one. He’s a confident lad and he went on to get the goal.
“He was terrific and you want chances to fall for him because you know that he’s going to score.
“Sometimes he’ll try something, it won’t quite come off and people will get a little bit frustrated with him.
“But you have to keep giving him a platform to attempt these things and he keeps stepping up and scoring goals.
“I know what type of person Jed is as well – he’ll never shy away from anything and he showed that yet again.”
Awford felt that Ribeiro should have been shown a red card rather than a yellow one for his challenge on Tubbs.
He said: “I hate seeing players red carded, but the rules are the rules and I thought he was the last man.
“It’s difficult for referees because they have to make snap decisions and I don’t like criticising them. Thankfully that didn’t cost us.”
Pompey have now claimed eight points from the last 12 available and Awford was pleased with how his side performed.
He said: “It was a very good advert for League Two football – both sides went for it in the open game and we edged it.
“Exeter played their part, but I have to give credit to our lads because they kept going right until the end.
“After the penalty miss it would have been easy for heads to drop, but we kept battling and I’m thrilled with the three points.
“I was also delighted with our defending and that we kept another clean sheet – that’s four on the bounce now.”