Portsmouth head coach Danny Cowley praised his side’s character after they beat Bolton 1-0 to earn a first win in four games.

John Marquis’ fourth goal of the season six minutes into the second half was enough to seal a hard-fought home victory.

Cowley said: “I don’t think we’ll have a more important three points all season.

“We might find a more free-flowing performance but I thought we fought our way in from where we’ve been as a group.

“I thought we came out in the second half with more intensity and aggression before we got the goal and that goal gave us confidence.

“I thought the second-half performance was pretty good.

“We could have made it a lot easier for ourselves because we had good dominance in the second half and I would have liked to have found a second goal.

“It probably needed to be hard-fought. The biggest positive for me was the clean sheet. All week we’ve been working on the defensive aspect of the game.

“We created some really good chances against a good Bolton team. I’ve seen them dominate the ball in several games recently.

“We’ve had to fight really hard to get to this position we are in now but there’s no celebrating in the dressing room because we are fully focused on the next game.”

Marquis broke the deadlock with a spectacular piece of improvisation.

Ronan Curtis broke free on the left and his deflected cross bounced awkwardly for Marquis, who managed to flick the ball with his heel over the stretching Joel Dixon.

Bolton could have taken the lead a minute before half-time when Declan John weaved his way into the Pompey from the left and crashed a shot against the outside of the post.

Bolton have now taken just one point from their last five matches.

But the visitors almost snatched a late equaliser when Eoin Doyle saw his header clip the crossbar.

Manager Ian Evatt said: “In the first half we were excellent but you have to score when you’re in your good spells, especially at places like this, a tough place to come.

“In the second half we conceded a really poor goal from a mistake.

“When you’re on these types of runs and the injuries we have everything seems to go against you.

“We had no options to change it, we had to bring on defenders just to get some fresh legs.

“Before the goal we didn’t look like conceding, I thought we were comfortable.

“First half we were solid and we had chances and opportunities to score, we hit the bar twice and the post. We’ve conceded a very poor goal.”