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Awford: Pompey could have won

Image: Andy Awford: Pleased with the performance

Andy Awford felt his Portsmouth side deserved all three points after their 1-1 draw at Cheltenham.

Pompey fell behind to Omari Sterling-James' 42nd-minute strike, but Nigel Atangana levelled 11 minutes into the second half to end a run of five straight away defeats in all competitions for Awford's men. "I'm pleased with the performance, which was excellent," Awford said. "We came with a game-plan and the players carried it out. "We wanted to keep it tight and grow into the game as it went on and I thought we were unfortunate to go behind at half-time - it's the only shot on target I can remember them having. "We weren't defensive, but we wanted to catch them on the counter-attack. I think we upped the quality in the second half and created more chances. "But the lads dug in and showed plenty of character. We probably deserved to win the game on the basis of our possession and chances created. "I have to say that our supporters were absolutely magnificent, yet again. "I think it was important that we went over to them as a group after the game because we're all in this together." Robins boss Paul Buckle praised attacking midfielder Sterling-James, who netted his first Football League goal two days after agreeing a new deal with the club which will keep him at Whaddon Road until 2016. "We scored a brilliant, well-worked goal and I brought Omari in to play shorter off Terry Gornell and it worked well because they didn't trouble us much in the first half," Buckle said. "Omari looked a constant threat, but we knew they'd come out strongly in the second half because Andy wasn't happy. "They had a lot of experience on the bench and they really came at us, throwing a lot into the box, which was a huge test for us. "We did well, but for one moment we lost our shape and they scored with a shot that looped up off Lee Vaughan's foot, hit the bar and went in. "We could have been 2-0 up before that with Omari having a good chance, but maybe that would have been too good to be true. "When he went through I really fancied him to score, but credit to Paul Jones for saving it because he is a very good goalkeeper."

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