Wilder states case for defence

Chris Wilder hailed the defensive qualities of Northampton as they beat Portsmouth 1-0 to maintain their late play-off push.

Ricky Holmes sank his former club with his third goal of the season as the Cobblers made it eight wins in their last 11 outings. The impressive Holmes, who left Fratton Park to join Northampton earlier in the campaign, bagged the only goal in the first half at Sixfields to end Pompey's recent good run. Wilder said: "We've played some great football this season, but here it was the quality of our defence which was so important. "We like to go at teams but sometimes sides push us back and we have to be able to handle that. "Sometimes you've just got to show those qualities without the ball to try and keep it out the net and we had to deal with a big threat in the second half. "Ricky Holmes was outstanding, I know what it's like when the pressure is on a player against his old club and sometimes it can go wrong. "But every player has put in a great effort for the team and we've got some very tired players in the dressing room. "Portsmouth have been on a great run and coming on the back off our win at Shrewsbury it was another tough test. "Portsmouth might feel unlucky, but we'll take it because this was a really big game for us. "We had the better of the first half, but Portsmouth were on top in the second half and we were not very good with the ball, but they've got some great players. "Once you get to March the finishing line comes very quickly. We're on a great run and results are unpredictable in this division so it will be another difficult game against Plymouth. "Shrewsbury, Portsmouth and Plymouth were always going to be three key games. We've won two of them and now we need to get something from Plymouth." Pompey boss Andy Awford had few complaints about his players. He said: "I was pleased with how we played in the second half because we pushed them all the way, but we just couldn't find that goal. "I think we created the better chances through the course of the game and the save their keeper (Matt Duke) produced from Matt Tubbs' shot at the end of the first half is one of the best I've seen all season. "It was a well-taken goal by Ricky (Holmes) but we switched off on the throw-in and that was a little disappointing for me. "It was a good goal and he took it well though. "We just needed to show a little bit more quality when we got into good areas. "I definitely thought we could have scored once, maybe even twice and we certainly should have taken something from the game."