Gary McSheffrey wants his side to play with no fear as they head to Portsmouth in Sky Bet League One.
Portsmouth was tipped for a top six finish at the start of the season but find themselves midtable having struggled to find momentum. Most recently Pompey have beat Burton Albion 2-1 and McSheffrey does not wanting to give Danny Cowley’s men back-to-back wins.
On the challenge of Portsmouth:
“There is nothing to fear. We must see it as a good challenge.
“Portsmouth are similar to Sunderland where their fans demand a lot from the team. We must go there and try to ruin the party and quieten the crowd.
“They will be upbeat after their last win. They are going to be different to what we have faced against Sunderland and Ipswich.
“They have good strikers who get in your face. Their wing backs are robust. It is going to be a difficult game where we will go there and respect them but play with the confidence of our good away form.”
On keeping belief:
“Our targets are still reachable, and we still have to play teams around us. It is still there for one of us to put a run together.
“We have missed out on opportunities to close the gap when other teams around us weren’t at the races either.
“If we want to stay at this level then we have to want to run the extra miles.”