Pompey won their first game of 2003 with the help of some Thierry Henry-like Va Va Voom and a sports psychologist.

Yakubu Ayegbeni provided the Va Va Voom - he put Harry Redknapp's side on their way with a blistering run and finish after just four minutes of his full debut.

Svetoslav Todorov provided the pass but there was little on for Yakubu before he accelerated past Grimsby skipper John McDermott, cut inside and rolled the ball into the far corner.

The Nigerian striker, on loan from Maccabi Haifa until the end of the season, tormented Grimsby with his pace for the rest of the first half and Redknapp said: "I thought it was Thierry Henry at first, he was so quick, he had the Va Va Vroom all right."

Home debutant Yakubu was joined in the starting line-up by Tim Sherwood, who had completed his move from Tottenham 48 hours earlier.

Sherwood did what he has done best throughout his career with Blackburn, Norwich and Spurs.

But, while he helped maintain possession in the middle of the park, he was left stunned by the pace offered by fellow new boy Yakubu. "I thought he was on a motorbike at first," said Sherwood.

"I didn't really get to see how quick he was in training but it didn't take long today."

Yakubu, 20, is more accustomed to Champions League football and the last time Sherwood was involved in Nationwide League action was when he helped Blackburn to promotion more than a decade ago.

"I can hardly remember it, it was that long ago but we were in a similar position then," he said. "I'm just here to help finish the job that the lads here have started but they certainly deserve to be playing Premiership football.

"I only hope it isn't going to be as difficult for us to go up as it was at Blackburn - we scraped through in the play offs in the end."

Pompey's win - their first since December 28 - keeps them on course for the top flight but Redknapp revealed that a sports psychologist came in useful during the previous fixtureless fortnight.

He added: "A sports psycholgist from Portsmouth University had got in touch to tell us that they had analysed our scoring patterns and revealed that we were conceding a lot of our goals in the first 20 minutes.

"We were fired up from the start for this one."

Injured centre backs Gianluca Festa and Arjan De Zeeuw were not missed at the back against a poor Grimsby side but, despite their dominance, Pompey did not double their lead until the 75th minute.

Grimsby centre back Simon Ford deflected Matthew Taylor's cross-cum-shot past Coyne and Nigel Quashie poked home a third in injury time after Merson had picked him out from 25 yards.

The post-match talking point was still Yakubu's devastating turn of pace.

Defender George Santos made a hash of attempting to clear the opening goal of the line and said: "I was surprised that Vincent Pericard was not playing and was even more surprised when I saw how quick Yakubu was."