MIRON Muslic insists his Plymouth Argyle side are still alive and kicking in their battle for Sky Bet Championship survival following a crucial 2-1 victory over Portsmouth on Wednesday evening.

The Argyle head coach hailed his team’s fighting spirit as they secured a first away win in 20 games, courtesy of goals from Mustapha Bundu and Ryan Hardie.

With just nine games remaining, Muslic believes this win proves his side has the resilience and determination needed to remain in the division, where they currently sit four points away from safety.

“It felt almost like a curse because if you can’t win for such a long time, it’s heavy and it takes a lot of energy out of the team,” he said. “Finally, though, we could turn this trend and reward ourselves.

“In the past we had good away performances, we were very close to beating Sunderland, and finally we could turn this into something very positive. From now on if we go away we have a chance to win and this is a good sign. We started tonight and we have to just continue and then everything is possible.”

Fit-again Ryan Hardie’s sublime backheel teed-up Mustapha Bundu to stroke the opener a minute before the break, before Hardie himself doubled the lead four minutes after the turnaround, streaking away from halfway to drill inside the near post.

A late red card for Matty Sorinola, plus a serious injury to defender Julio Pleguezuelo, did little to ease the nerves for the travelling Green Army, who saw Adil Aouchiche lash in what turned out to be a consolation a minute from normal time for Pompey.

“It feels brilliant,” added Muslic, whose side play host to fellow strugglers Derby County at Home Park on Saturday. “It was also very much needed to give us this last proof of confidence that we can do it away.”