Simon Bassey was bursting with pride after watching Pompey’s Emirates FA Cup performance at Tottenham.
It took a moment of magic from England skipper Harry Kane early in the second half to settle the third round contest.
The visitors had limited their star-studded Premier League hosts to very few clear-cut chances and Reeco Hackett saw a shot superbly saved by Fraser Forster.
Bassey was impressed by the overall display from the Blues and wants to see the levels maintained moving forward.
The interim head coach said: “I’m immensely proud. I told the boys afterwards that we can achieve some big things here and the performance was a building block towards that.
“The challenge for us is to bring that effort and intensity every week when we’re competing in League One.
“When you come to places like this, you ultimately have to defend well and the one bit of combination play we’ve got wrong has cost us in the end.
“But when you lose to a world class player producing a world class finish, sometimes you just have to applaud that – although I never did!
“We’ve probably given away too many soft goals this season and so this was a start towards limiting the number of chances for the opposition.
“We probably just lacked a bit of quality with our final ball at the other end and couldn’t find that gilt-edged chance in the second half, although almost got Owen Dale in on a couple of occasions.”
"But when you lose to a world class player producing a world class finish, sometimes you just have to applaud that – although I never did!"
Bassey enjoyed the opportunity to put his wits against Spurs boss Antonio Conte in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium dug-outs.
He said: “I was an apprentice at Charlton and my manager loved Italian football – he made us watch it every Sunday.
“Sampdoria were my Italian team and so the passing of Gianluca Vialli was really sad, but Antonio Conte was someone I also watched as a boy.
“When I looked to my right and saw him, it’s a good feeling, but I had to remain focused during the game and not get too romantic about it.
“It was still a proud day for me, though – my parents, wife and son were all there. It’s been a long journey for me and a big difference from where I started.”
Louis Thompson came off the bench to make a welcome return to action after breaking his leg back in August.
Bassey said: “He wasn’t going to get a lot of time, although we managed to get 15 minutes into him and we can build on that on Tuesday.
“It was a big stage to come on at a high tempo, but he’s worked really hard to get back and we’re really pleased to see him out on the pitch again.
“Unfortunately, Jay Mingi has done his medial ligament and is in a brace at the moment. It could be around 6-8 weeks.
“He jumped over a tackle in training and opened his knee up, so it’s disappointing because his athleticism would have been a real plus.”