Portsmouth boss Hart hails defence after cleansheet

Portsmouth boss Paul Hart was delighted with their cleansheet in victory over Wigan Athletic.

Hart had praise for all of his back four and keeper David James.

Hart told The News: "The clean sheets are so important. If you look at the way we have played, we concede a bit of ground to teams when we play like that, but the efforts to get around the pitch and close people down has been astonishing.

"Tal Ben-Haim, since he moved to full-back, hasn't put a foot wrong – he's been magnificent.

"Steve Finnan has done great, Nadir Belhadj came on and is defending better than ever. I know he made a couple of mistakes earlier this season but we've been working with him every day and there has been a massive improvement.

"The two centre-backs must be the youngest partnership in the Premier League. They are only 23 and 22 and have been superb, while the goalkeeper continues to defy the laws of gravity, age and everything else."