PORTSMOUTH FOOTBALL CLUB

It looked like an evening of pain was in store when Danny Hylton opened the scoring for Luton after just seven minutes.

But there was only joy for the travelling supporters when the final whistle blew at Kenilworth Road.

Goals from Michael Smith, Gareth Evans and Kal Naismith turned the match on its head as Pompey produced an impressive showing.

And Paul Cook was delighted with the display from his players after they leapfrogged the Hatters into fourth spot.

The Blues boss said: “A couple of weeks ago I was talking about the worst performance in my time here against Wycombe.

“And this time – when you throw all things into the mix – it was probably one of our strongest.

“We were excellent and created a host of chances. I said before that both teams can hurt each other and the game panned out how I thought.

“Luton are set up to play football on a good pitch and there were two sides out there who wanted to win the game.

“Great credit to our lads and our supporters because there has been so much pain in the past and we should enjoy our successes.

“Michael Smith was fantastic and sometimes we have to be careful not to get after lads a bit too quickly.

“I must give credit to Luton as well because it takes two sides to play a game of football like that.

“But let’s not over-analyse and instead we want to look forward to another game on Saturday against Stevenage.

“We’ve been here before and won’t get carried away, but it was a great night for Portsmouth Football Club.

“This can be a tough club to play for and manage because of what the fans demand, but they just want success like the rest of us.

“They travel from work and pay their money to support us and all they want is to see us get promoted – we’ll do our best to give them that.”

Watch Cook's thoughts on the game below or subscribe to Pompey PlayerHD for full post-match content.