What a wonderful performance. Well worth the drenching received by those of us in the Lower Holmesdale.

George Burley was spot on in his post-match appraisal that the team had finally started to gel, but there was obviously more to the performance than that.

James Vaughan has made the difference; he put on a performance not seen at Selhurst since Andy Johnson. It wasn’t just the goals, though, it was the pace, work-rate, dedication to the cause that put me in mind of AJ especially seeing him battling away as a lone striker.

Vaughan’s arrival has also allowed us to switch to a 4-5-1. Being able to have two players; Andy Dorman and Owen Garvan sitting deep goes some way to making up for the absence of a holding midfield player as well as giving the chance for Dorman to see a bit more of the ball.

Dorman and Garvan aren’t ideal in that position but together they had just enough to disrupt Kanu who while not having the legs anymore showed some wonderful touches.

The change in formation also gave Neil Danns the freedom to maraud forward at will and for the two Keiran’s to terrorise down the flanks.

Djilali, in particular, was very impressive and despite Vauhgan’s heroics, was man of the match for me.

Every time he received the ball wide on the left his first thought was to run at his full back which he did with great effect all night. Joel Ward was left chasing shadows as Djilali beat him with ease both cutting in and going to the by-line.

He has a couple of years head start on Cadogan and this experience shows when it comes to decision making when it matters. Whereas Cadogan shows his inexperience at times when choosing that final ball, Djilali was decisive and accurate with his crossing and shooting.

And he was unlucky not to be rewarded with a goal when his beautifully shaped effort rattled the upright.

But it was not only going forward that he impressed me but also the effort he put into tracking back.

There were a number of occasions at 1-1 when we were looking decidedly stretched and it was Kerian djilali making timely interceptions and helping out his full-back which was good to see. He also cleared a goal-bound header off the line to round off a night were he finally jumped from talented youngster to senior professional.

So overall a very good night but we can’t allow ourselves to get too carried away with the result. As scintillating as we were going forward, defensively we looked frail and panicked at times barring Paddy McCarthy. Gardner isn’t yet at his best and Burley will be having flash backs of the equaliser for days. Portsmouth weren’t without their chances and if anyone but the very poor Dave Kitson was on hand we could have been in trouble by half-time.

It’s certainly something to build on but like Kayla we’ve not quite taken off yet.