Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder spoke to BBC Radio Sheffield following Saturday's win at Portsmouth.
"It was mentality maybe over control and us imposing ourselves. They were better at what they did in the first half than what we did, but they never put us to bed," he said.
"We grew into the game in the second half. At half-time we talked about it, that we could be a little bit better and I'm not so sure they could do any better than that.
"We knew the game would settle down a little bit and it did, and we started to impose ourselves.
"I thought Kalvin [Phillips] in the middle of the park, it was a really tough one to get chucked into because of the pace and the nature of the game and the intensity of it. They had two midfielder players who were all over our midfield players, and they won that battle in the first half. But Kalvin gave us an opportunity to start finding passes and getting out, while always knowing the opposition are dangerous.
"Maybe I would have taken a point with 10 minutes to go, and that not being negative because this is a difficult place to come. So to get a winner is brilliant for everybody."