Norwich City head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup was not surprised by the manner of his side's hard fought 0-0 draw at Fratton Park on Tuesday night.
The Canaries had to work to earn a point on the south coast and while Hoff Thorup was pleased with the character shown, he admitted that there was improvement needed.
The head coach thanked the City fans that made the journey and highlighted their support, before he dissected the game:
"First of all my thoughts on those guys who were over there. For 90 minutes supporting the team, it was fantastic, it's such a long travel and then they get to see a game where it's definitely not one of our best ones and we struggled, but we knew that before the game started and we knew that this would be a tough one, a hard fight, a game about second balls and duels.
"A lot of balls in the air, a lot of direct play starting with the goalkeeper, every situation they bring bodies in the box. So, first of all, we needed to deal with that and then earn our right to be able to play.
"I think it was important for the group of players in there to show that we can also do that when we need to. When we improve more and develop more we can go away from home and play better games than we did tonight."
The front-foot passing game that has been evident this season when City are on form appeared in small spells towards the end, but Hoff Thorup highlighted the challenge of playing stylish football at times, hoping his team will adapt better in the future:
"I don't think we managed to find that balance in the game so that we could have longer spells on the ball and we could dominate more, but it's a tricky one to flick from duels and fights and crosses and second balls and then go to be able to play, but that's ideally where we have to go when we become a little bit better."
Looking ahead to Sunday's clash with Burnley at Carrow Road, the Dane expected a different look to the game:
"Hopefully we can find the rhythm again because that's what we train for.
"I liked some of the moments today and hopefully we can bring some of that into the game: the fight, the willingness just to put aside the beautiful things and work very, very hard but hopefully we can combine that on Sunday because that's the way we want to work going forwards."