Wanderers 2 PORTSMOUTH 0 WITH any luck, Terry Fenwick's long range forecast will prove more accurate than his match verdict.

The Portsmouth boss seemed level headed and in control of his senses when he tipped Wanderers to win one of the two automatic promotion places. Few would disagree after the start they've made.

But you had to seriously question his judgment when he claimed his Pompey boys "ran the second half" of Saturday's game at Burnden.

Table-topping Wanderers reacted with a combination of amazement and amusement.

Playmaker Alan Thompson was lost for words before voicing his astonishment. "Did he really say that?" he asked. "He can't have been watching the same game." Goal star Nathan Blake saw the funny side and joked: "I went to watch Grease on Thursday and that was amusing too!"

The Welshman, who has scored three goals in successive games to take his running total to five with the promise of many more to come, was willing to admit Wanderers hadn't hit the heights of their midweek demolition of Grimsby. But, in an ominous warning to prospective promotion rivals, he suggested: "If we are playing as well as that when we are below par, once we are playing above par, teams had better watch out."

To their credit and apparently to Fenwick's satisfaction, Portsmouth made Wanderers fight almost to the death before securing their fourth successive home win to surge a point ahead of morning leaders Barnsley. It took a Chris Fairclough goal, delightfully laid on by Thompson four minutes from time - his second in five days - to put the result beyond all reasonable doubt. But it really was just a matter of time before superior class and extra determination won the day.

Pompey didn't know what had hit them in the first 20 minutes as Wanderers threatened to carry on where they'd left off on Tuesday. But they weathered the storm, dug in and played a resolute containing game with the impressive Jimmy Carter making a nuisance of himself, until four minutes into the second half when the hard-working Blake made the most of David Lee's inviting cross to plant a bullet-header out of the reach of the acrobatic Aaron Flahavan.

Where they'd been delighted with six in an open encounter with Grimsby, the division's top scorers would have been happy to settle for just the one under such wildly contrasting circumstances.

But one is never really enough and, in fairness to Fenwick, Pompey might have snatched a draw if Fitzroy Simpson hadn't headed Alan McLoughlin's cross wide of the near post 13 minutes from time.

They wouldn't have deserved it though!

Wanderers were comfortably the better side; Flahavan was far and away the busier keeper and, for good measure, the visitors escaped two strong penalty appeals.

Pompey moaned that referee Kevin Lynch let Wanderers take an unfair advantage with the quick free kick that paved the way for Per Frandsen and John McGinlay to make the initial thrust before Lee laid on the crucial first goal. But the Yorkshire official let Simpson get away with a clear handball under pressure from Blake in the fourth minute and Robbie Pethick's 56th minute tackle on McGinlay was as cut and dried as any penalty imaginable. Fairclough, who waited over a season to open his Wanderers account then got his name on the scoresheet twice in a week, enjoyed the accolades but took greater pleasure from helping the back four claim only their second shut-out in seven games.

"It's always nice to score," said the unflappable centre-back, "but I can't see it lasting. I seem to recall I've scored two in two before but never three in a row.

"It's more important from my point of view to keep a clean sheet. It wasn't one of our better games but it was a hard-working performance. There are times when you have to grind out results and you do that by being patient and keeping your shape, which we did. "It doesn't always come easy. We didn't pass as well as we have and we didn't move as well as we have. But we stuck at it and that was the most pleasing thing."

Todd waved away Fenwick's suggestion that Wanderers are hot favourites in the race for the Premiership. He knows teams will continue to come to Burnden with frustration and containment in mind.

He warned: "We've got to be ready for teams coming here determined to set their stalls out to make it difficult for us.

"Portsmouth were quite happy to keep it very low-key but, as the home side, it's up to us to break them down. You can't always expect games like we had against Grimsby. But we worked hard, kept our discipline and deserved the goals when they came.

"It was a very good win."

Pompey wouldn't have been in with a shout if Wanderers had made more of their exhilarating start.

They couldn't live with Michael Johansen's pace and trickery or Thompson's midfield drive. Both tested Flahavan while Keith Branagan was virtually a spectator. But Todd, who saw Portsmouth win at Swindon in midweek, had warned his players to guard against quick counter attacks and there were times when Carter, in particular, looked menacing.

That concern prompted the manager to leave his seat in the stand at half time for a place on the bench to be nearer the action - the first time this season he has occupied his familiar touchline position. But he only had to wait four minutes before Blake made the breakthrough and after that he was sitting pretty.

Fairclough and Gerry Taggart still had to keep an eye on Paul Hall and substitute Lee Bradbury, whose battling qualities betrayed his army background. But Taggart still managed to get in on the attacking act, forcing Flahavan to make a fingertip save with a header from Thompson's imaginative free kick.

Branagan produced a duplicate from Bradbury's header two minutes from time but by that time Wanderers had the game sewn up.

Despite the extravagant claims concerning his own team's performance, Fenwick remains one of the growing band of Wanderers admirers. "Before the game I felt they were the best in the Division," he explained. "Few teams will come here and pass the ball around as well as we did and if we continue along those lines we'll shock a lot of teams away from home.

"But Bolton are a good side with lots of good, experienced professionals who have done it at the top level.

"I think they will go up automatically, along with Barnsley."

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