Back-to-back clean sheets and more importantly back-to-back wins for Bristol City for the first time this season. When you consider just how outfought, out-thought and outplayed we were only 22 days ago by Portsmouth away at Fratton Park, this was a good display and Liam Manning got his team selection and tactics spot on to mirror reverse the scoreline.

At the start of the month Storm Darragh, Colby Bishop and Josh Murphy caused us all sorts of problems on the Hampshire coast. I wondered how Manning would combat the traps that Pompey boss Mousinho likes to set and how we would stand up against the physicality that Portsmouth would bring.

In truth, whilst I was still impressed with Bishop, he didn't get a sniff out of Rob Dickie all game and it was City's big centre half who got on the score sheet and won his battle.

That was very much the case throughout the side, with our players winning the majority, if not all, of their individual battles. I thought Nahki Wells was superb as the number nine and he didn't allow former City players Marlon Pack and Ryley Towler a moment on the ball. It was Wells' clever forward play, knowing when to press and holding the ball up brilliantly to bring his teammates into play.

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Scott Twine played in behind Nahki on the right with Anis Mehmeti on the left and we looked much more balanced at the top end of the pitch. I thought Twine had his most effective game for us overall and he looked far more comfortable to me on the right. It's what Twine does without the ball, creating space and his first thought when he receives the ball is to play forward.

The back three of Zak Vyner, Dickie and Luke McNally looked solid and this back three give us a real platform. Playing three at the back looks far more balanced when you have Ross McCrorie on the right and Cameron Pring on the left. Both players play that wing-back role with an attacking intent and McCrorie gives an energy, a determination and an absolute desire to win every challenge which was matched by his teammate on the opposite flank in Pring.

In the middle of the pitch, Max Bird was excellent, picking up the ball and looking to make things happen and in captain Jason Knight, we had the conductor, setting the tempo in the way that we wanted to play going forward but also winning the ball time and time again when Portsmouth were in possession. Knight goes about his job and sets a level that is so high that you almost forget just how good a player he is and the levels that he plays at.

To be completely honest, we started a little slowly and Portsmouth seemed to me to have the lion's share of possession without really doing anything with it. It was the opening goal from Anis that really changed the shape of the game. Nahki did well to win the ball and feed it into Bird on the halfway line and he spotted Anis' brilliantly timed run.

Anis had a lot of time to think about his finish and perhaps surprised the Pompey goalkeeper, going to the narrow-left-hand side of the goal rather than the more obvious right-hand side. It was a neat finish.

Bishop forced an otherwise quiet Max O'Leary into a low-down save before Wells stung the hands of the Pompey keeper with a powerful drive after more good play to open up the Portsmouth back line. Manning's side didn't have too long to wait, and it was that man Mehmeti again.

Anis got his second just after the half-hour mark following some more good work from Wells, after a wayward header from Pack. Wells played a ball inside that Mehmeti met and steered home with a first-time side-foot volley. The game was over minutes later when Dickie fooled the Portsmouth defence with a dive at the back post, almost covert like in its execution, only to get up at quick speed and tap home McNally's saved effort.

That was pretty much game over and if I was being hypercritical we should have gone on to get at least one more goal. Anis had two great opportunities at the back post in the second half to walk away with the match ball but failed to find the target with both.

Wells was replaced on the hour by Sam Bell and I would love to know if and when the club plans to speak to Nahki about a new contract. Wells is playing the best football of his Bristol City career and in this form is deserving of another year's contract with perhaps a second year based on appearances and a coaching role included. It is a no-brainer for me and if Nahki were to walk away at the end of the season, I would be disappointed in the club.

Our 3 Peaps In A PodCast player ratings were Max O'Leary 6, Zak Vyner 7, Luke McNally 7, Rob Dickie 7.5, Ross McCrorie 7, Cameron Pring 7.5, Jason Knight 8 *MotM, Max Bird 7.5, Scott Twine 7, Anis Mehmeti 8 and Nahki Wells 8.

For the substitutes who must play a minimum of 20 minutes (including injury time), we went with George Tanner 6, George Earthy 6 and Sam Bell 7. A game average player rating of 7.11.

That's an overall season-to-date average player rating of 6.25. For Liam Manning, it was 8. He got his starting eleven spot on and made substitutions at the right time. Happy Days.

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