Bristol City 2 Portsmouth 1 - Run on

City brought Pompey’s six game unbeaten streak to a halt and in the process extended their own run ‘on’ to four games.

My clipping from this morning’s copy of The Sun

I had a quiet chat with Keith Millen after the game and he is now looking up the table for the first time this season rather than sweating on how many teams are chasing City. I think it’s fair to say that this was the game that effectively sealed Championship survival.

Earlier in the season I found myself in the uncomfortable situation of having to ask Keith how he was coping with the pressure as City lurched from one poor result to another. At that point in the season, Millen and City were at a crossroads. He had been with the club in a coaching capacity for some time and seen managers come and go after similar spells. So how was he coping?

Keith is one of the game’s good guys and politely handled questions even though you knew that he’d rather be anywhere else.

“I’m a fighter,” he told me. “I believe we can get ourselves out of this situation.”

In the car park I had a chat with one of the players who told me that Keith had their full support and they really believed that they’d be able to turn things around.

To both Keith’s credit and that of the players, they have.

Millen still wants to reach the fifty or fifty-two point safety mark as soon as possible, but realistically it’s now all about finishing the season on a high and putting themselves in the right frame of mind as they start to prepare for next season.

Of course diehard Robins will tell you that they are still in with a shout of a play-off place and it is certainly a possibility, but how many felt that they would be struggling to stay up during those dark early season days?

Now they have a team that is full of self-belief and players who look like they could beat anyone – they’re also playing some nice stuff.

The return of striker Nicky Maynard from long term injury has also given them another dimension, but it would be unfair on the rest of the lads to point to his return as reason for their change in fortunes as they have all been contributing and have been doing so for some time.

Millen heaped praise on his team after the game and said:

"I'm so proud of my players. Some of them have gone through the pain barrier and done everything and more than I asked of them to beat a very good Portsmouth side. They are full of players with Premier League experience, were full of confidence after a great six-match winning run and showed that in the way they played.

We've had to hang on in there, scrap and fight for every ball and defend for our lives, but the lads have shown incredible fighting spirit and an amazing will to win and I'm really pleased with them. This was a big, big test for the lads and they've come through it with flying colours."

Pompey boss Steve Cotterill shrugged off the defeat and said:

“If we were to losing to anyone, City would be one of those sides. Keith Millen is an honest and hard working guy and has done a great job here. There won’t be many teams who come here and football them like we did. We were better – but just didn’t stick the ball in the back of the net.

We were fitter and stronger, we passed the ball better. ‘The only thing we fell down on was they scored two and we’ve scored one. That’s the only thing we fell down on. All the other aspects of football I thought we were superb, absolutely superb.