Awford pleased with Wallace

Andy Awford heaped praise on Jed Wallace after his winner secured a 1-0 victory over Exeter.

Wallace appeared to have cost Pompey the points when he blazed a 73rd-minute penalty over the visitors' crossbar. But his superb solo goal in injury time earned Pompey a second home win in a week and eased the League Two club's relegation fears. "He's a confident lad; he'll want to take the next penalty and I won't have any problems in him doing so," Awford said of Wallace. "Jed showed a good strength of character, and keeps going and putting himself in those positions. "Let him loose in goal-scoring areas and he shows what he can do. His finish was great." Danny Hollands created Pompey's winner by lobbing a pass to Wallace, who whizzed past two Grecians defenders before burying a shot in the far corner. Awford believed Portsmouth deserved their win to extend a mini unbeaten run to four matches, during which time they have not conceded a goal. He said: "Exeter played their full part in it and our lads did as well. "It was a really good game of football with both teams trying to play on a difficult surface. "We hit the bar twice, missed a penalty, scored and had a few other opportunities, while Exeter had their opportunities and hit the bar late on. "It was a good game but I think we edged it and the crowd made a massive difference to getting us over the line and I thank them. "We stuck to the game plan and fully deserved the three points." Wallace's late winner put a real dent in Exeter's prospects of reaching the play-offs, but manager Paul Tisdale was not too disappointed at the result. "We took the opportunity to open the game up, that's the way we do it and want to do it with the players we've got," he argued. "It's not the best policy for us to sit on the edge of our box for 90 minutes. Fifteen minutes in we opened it up. The pitch was quick and produced a very decent game of football. "This shouldn't be construed as a criticism, but over the last 10 minutes when we were hoping to score we probably lacked 10 per cent in sharpness in our legs, but that's what you are going to get with senior players in your side."