"I thought the first 35 minutes was the best we've played all season home and away, even better that some of the play we had on Tuesday at Fulham.

"We had a marvellous 35 minutes - I thought we played the first 35 minutes quite similarly to the many, many games we played last year.

"It would be very hard to play the full 90 minutes the way we played the first 35 - it was always going to dip a little bit - but we revived it in the second half and some of our play early in the second half was also very good.

"It was a magnificent win and we should all be very pleased about it. The players worked very hard, they've been fantastic.

"Shola (Ameobi) got a goal that I think he deserved. I thought he did very well with Alan. He didn't take up the same runs and the same space as Alan. He dovetailed very nicely with Alan and he had a fine match.

"He's a Newcastle boy, he's come from the Academy - he's one of our own, if you like. The crowd know that and I love that.

"We've liked him for two years now, Shola, and the fact that Craig's out now for four months, it gives him an opportunity.

"He must see a bit of daylight ahead, he's going to grasp it - if he doesn't, Cort will come into it LuaLua will come into it - so he's got a chance, and he's taken it.

"He hunts the ball over the top, which we want him to do. Alan can't do that so much now, but does it when he can and when it merits it, but we need that player who can just get in behind and he did that several times for us."

After a week when our performances have continued to improve, it's a pleasure to be able to pay tribute to the combined improvement of the side, who were collectively below-par at the beginning of the season but are now seeing a joint upsurge in fortunes.

Both Shola and Speed will doubtless have been heartened by their first home goals of the season, while the second-highest scorer in our history would no doubt have rather scored them all, but was probably fairly chuffed nonetheless that others were chipping to help him out in front of goal.

The fact that Portsmouth were as puffy as the jowls on old 'Arry Redknapp's boat race of course helped us enormously, as their early-season form seems to have been swapped for ours and they look to have the problem that fettled West Brom last season - impotency in front of goal.

They did have their moments, mostly when the laid-back Sheringham was involved, but any advances they did make were as much due to our taking the foot of the pedal as their own ability.

We were able to change down the gears as we'd begun this encounter in fine style, bursting forward from the off to greet the returning Shaka Hislop with rather less warmth than the home fans (who hailed another Pompey keeper at half time, the ever-popular Pav).

Hislop was in action within seconds of the start to parry away an Ameobi shot, and it was Shearer's strike partner who provided a good deal of our forward thrust in the opening period, swapping roles with Robert to good effect and leading Pompey a dance down their right side.

The number nine got in on the act with a good penalty shout and extended moan to the linesman and referee when no award was forthcoming. But he didn't have to wait long for his chance from the spot, after Paul Durkin decided that handball was handball, regardless of how much or little Stefanovic knew about the offence. Shearer blasted the kick home in style, but only Durkin will know how much the first unsuccessful appeal influenced that award second time round.

With a winning margin achieved, the rest of the first half was comparatively incident-free, save for a mad moment when Given wandered across his area and a good low dive to foil Sheringham's shot on the turn. As a confirmed non-fan of this geezer, it was pleasing to see him fail to score and therefore be denied the opportunity to reprise his kneeling salute from this ground a decade ago. And getting booked for moaning like a girl after Al's penalty was especially sweet.

Hughes also managed to irritate some of the crowd with his habit of stumbling into the path of Berger and surrendering possession cheaply, although others were on hand to mop up. 

On a more positive note, the midfield were in command of most of the centre of the field, with Jenas continuing to improve overall on a game by game basis, even if he did disappear at times during this match. Bowyer again looked far happier with his lot, a fact confirm by his willingness to speak to the media. 

The most energetic and innovative 45 minutes of the season were richly applauded at the half time break and once Shola had slightly fortuitously made it three, Sir Bobby was able to indulge himself with a trio of replacements.

As usual Robert didn't last the full ninety,  but in his place on the left side came the familiar high-wire act of LuaLua, on this occasion given a whole ten minutes with which to try and play himself back into Bobby's thoughts for Wednesday or do something worthy of note for the cameras to record and prompt those managers keen on him to try their luck again.

Given the type of player he is, there's obviously a tendency for Lua to try and go for the grand gesture, in the form of scampering through whole teams en route to goal. Under those circumstances, the desperation to make an impact in such a limited time is understandable, but it does seem a wee bit unfair on the lad to give him such a limited workout. After all, it's not so very long ago that he was replacing Bellamy to good effect in the side along Shearer. 

Happily there seem to be signs of a Shearer / Shola understanding, but with Cort out of the reckoning, there's a place for LuaLua on the bench, if not the first XI. 

A start against the Baggies wouldn't seem an unreasonable reward for him - it could certainly be argued he'd done more to deserve one that a certain young gentleman from Portugal.....

In a rare moment of post-Breda weakness, we burbled to a Guardian correspondent that the week of games against Boro, Fulham and Pompey would make or break our season. Thankfully we're now a week and nine points further down the road and the clouds are starting to lift. 

However, welcome though progress in the Carling Cup would be; and vital though another home victory against a Villa side (who have one point from fifteen on their travels) is, neither would confirm our revival had substance. 

It's the twin tests in Basel and Chelsea that loom large thereafter and will need a sustained and continued improvement to emerge unscathed from.

It was vitally important that we got this trio of wins, to boost morale, give us some positive PR and most vitally to lift us up the table and kick-start the season. 

The reality is that we're now in the same position as last season: eighth after 10 games (although with one point less) and interest in three cup competitions. 

That hoped-for assault on the summit of the Premiership is a still a fair way off, although in our new, improved state we now look to have a succession of eminently winnable games coming up in the rest of 2003.