TONY PULIS admitted that matchwinner Ricardo Fuller needed a goal to boost his confidence after his decisive strike in the victory over Portsmouth.

Fuller struck his first Barclays Premier League goal of the season to clinch the win over bottom-of-the-table Pompey in the live televised fixture.

"Ric has been looking a bit nervous, a bit edgy in recent games, so this will have done him a power of good," said Pulis who was about to take the Jamaican international striker off when he struck the 74th minute winner against his former club Portsmouth.

"He's generally a very confident lad, but he breeds off confidence and hopefully this goal will have lifted a big weight off his shoulders now."

He added: "He had worked tirelessly up front and I was about to pull him off to introduce a fresh pair of legs when he came with a quality strike."

The Potters regained ninth position in the Premier League with the hard-fought victory, one in which they struggled in the first half and were indebted to a penalty save from Thomas Sorensen which kept them on level terms in the early stages.

"That was as poor as we've played and it was an important save from Thomas," declared City's manager. "But we have to keep things in perspective, we have 19 points from 13 matches and we're absolutely delighted with that.

"The supporters weren't happy in the first half, but you expect that today. If you're not playing well, then the fans let you know. It just shows how far we have come and it demonstrates that expectations have gone through the roof."

He added: "The lads kept working hard and this was a fantastic win for us because despite their current position, they are a good side."

City's goalscoring hero Fuller admitted: "I needed that to get my season going. I had a good feeling that I might get my first League goal of the season against my former club and I now hope that can set me off on a good run over the next few weeks.

"It wasn't pretty at times, and we weren't at our best, but it's three points and that's all that matters. It's a big win for us after some frustrating results."

Portsmouth remain at the foot of the Premier League table and their manager Paul Hart commented afterwards: "I feel very hard done by at the moment.

"We have missed a penalty, which you would expect to score from, and I don't think our goalkeeper has had a shot to save before they scored their goal.

"I couldn't see Stoke getting a goal because our defence was solid and we were superb in midfield, so overall I thought we were in control."