Portsmouth boss Steve Cotterill is confident of making the play-offs after they came from behind to record their first win in five npower Championship matches with a 2-1 success at Swansea on Friday night. The win lifted Pompey up to 12th, two points off the top six.

Cotterill said: "We showed great character. I thought if we stuck to our jobs we'd have a chance. But losing the early goal made it look even harder for us.

"But we regained our composure and getting the goals gave us a big lift.

"In the end we had seen off their threat."

Despite recording their first win since October 30, Cotterill added: "It wasn't a much-needed win. Before this (winless) run, we'd won six out of seven so if you put it all together it's probably eight out of 12.

"It was a needed win because we want to win. We weren't in dire straits. We didn't deserve to beat Barnsley (1-0 loss) but we should have beaten Doncaster (3-2 loss) and QPR (1-1 draw).

"The result shows maybe we can get into the top six but we are light on numbers. We hope to bring in players in January but we will have to wait and see.

"We are going in the right direction. It's taken a lot of hard work behind the scenes."

Swansea missed the chance to move level on points with Welsh rivals Cardiff and boss Brendan Rodgers was disappointed his side's impressive start came to nothing.

"The opening 25 minutes we were outstanding. We led early on and could have had a few more so to come away with nothing is disappointing," he said.

"We defended poorly with their two goals and it cost us.

"You've got to give credit to Portsmouth. They stayed in the game and were rewarded by punishing our mistakes.

"We need to ensure we manage the game the way we want by being patient. We will have this again before the end of the season.

"It was set up for us to do well, especially after the start, but that is this league. When you play against some good teams, especially with Premier League quality, they can hurt you. We have to lick our wounds move on."