Portsmouth manager John Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent:
"My brain is a bit frazzled by some of the things we did but we've come away with three points, which is the most important thing.
"I thought we were the dominant side. We didn't allow Cardiff to have much possession, didn't allow them to have too many chances.
"My overall feeling is that I'm absolutely delighted we've taken the three points. There's some frustration in parts of the performance but the most important thing at any stage of the season is to pick up the points but particularly now."
Cardiff manager Omer Riza told BBC Radio Wales:
"I'm disappointed. We made it hard for ourselves. To go two down early on again is hard work. After 20 minutes, we were better and got the goal, created chances we maybe should have scored but in general we weren't good enough.
"We lacked execution, we lacked bravery. We were second to a lot of the stuff tonight. We have to move forwards but it wasn't good enough.
"They [Portsmouth] have been really strong at home and they're good at the things they did. It was like a rugby match at times and we didn't stand up to the challenge. A few players froze in the moment.
"I've told my players that we can do better, we can play better than that. You might have to have a fight, but once you've had a fight, you need to be able to start playing your game and applying your strengths to the game, which will cause the opposition a problem.
"When we did that, we caused them problems, but it was few and far between tonight. Like I said, to go 2-0 down, you start searching for things that are not there a little bit earlier than you want."