Portsmouth 1-2 Norwich City: Vladan Kovacevic's reaction

The Serbian goalkeeper played an influential role in the Canaries' first league victory of the campaign by producing a fantastic stop to deny Regan Poole moments before Josh Sargent's second, before a headline-grabbing penalty save from Colby Bishop.

Kovacevic's heroics were complemented by a proactive performance that saw him look more confident and commanding in his penalty area compared to last week's debut against Millwall.

He was pushed by his team-mates in front of City's 2,000 travelling support for recognition post-match and was confident when the referee pointed to the spot that he could produce a memorable save.

"Wow, this game. I will remember this game for all my life, really. This is one of the hardest games I've played in my life. So, welcome to Championship, Vlad," the Serb said post-match at Fratton Park.

"I love to face penalties. I love when the team has a penalty against me. I love it. I feel it. With my coach, Tony, he's a master-class goalkeeper coach. We analyse before the game every time so penalties are because of him.

"I think sometimes it's luck. I think today I was lucky. I tried, but not every time. But today I was lucky on my side."

Fratton Park has been a fortress for John Mousinho's side since they returned to the second tier, with Norwich becoming only the sixth team since the start of last season to leave with maximum points.

The victory involved plenty of pragmatism and deep defending, but Kovacevic was delighted that their hard work was rewarded with maximum points.

Vladan Kovacevic was singled out for recognition after CIty's win at Portsmouth. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd) "Crazy performance. We managed the game; we tried to kick a long ball when we needed to kick. We don't want to play this kind of football, but sometimes we have to. So, we are happy. We have three points in the pocket," Kovacevic said.

"First half, we controlled the game for the first 20 minutes, and then the crowd and everything pushed them. So, how do I say it? A tough game with tough opponents. We are happy. We are really happy that we won the game today.

"The fans push us the whole game. Amazing feeling. We play away, I feel like we play home. So thank you to the fans today. That was amazing, really."

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