JOHN Coleman was delighted to see his Accrington Stanley side playing the ball around the way he knows they can in their 4-1 win over Portsmouth this afternoon.

Kenny Jacket's side took the lead in the first half through Ronan Curtis, but an Ellis Harrison own goal along with a Colby Bishop brace and a Dion Charles goal ended Pompey's unbeaten run.

Coleman thinks Portsmouth will be at the business end of the table come the end of the season.

"I’m delighted with the lads. They’ve got their rewards for their efforts," said Coleman.

"We’ve spoken about getting back to passing the ball. We were mixing the game up a little bit, not taking too many undue risks, but started to get back to playing the way we know we can play which is very much a passing based game and pressing.

"We’ve played similar to that this season, but the ball just hasn’t hit the back of the net – today it did.

"For the first 40 minutes you were thinking it wouldn’t, we made chances and hit the woodwork twice like we always do.

"We handled the set back of going behind against a good Portsmouth side. They’ve been unbeaten for a good spell; they’ve climbed the table and they’ll be right up there come the end of the season.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game, we applied ourselves really well and the players took on board everything that I said to them during the week.

"When we play that type of football, some of what we played in the second half was breath taking and the first half to be fair, but the second half was full of nice touches.

"That comes with confidence, when the ball’s going in the net then them back heels start coming off and people are always running onto the second balls and we’re having shots.

"It’s great to watch and it’s great for the fans to watch. It’s great for me to watch and it must be great to play in.

"You’ve got to earn that right and you do that by working hard. We worked ever so hard today and we ran ourselves into the ground.

"I don’t think even the most hardened of Portsmouth fans can say we didn’t deserve the win."