After Saturday's 5-0 mauling at Manchester United, Grant knows victory in tonight's home clash is vital if Pompey are to cling on to any genuine hope of staying in the Premier League this season.

But the Blues boss insists the quality of Pompey's play should rightfully see them in mid-table safety, rather than cut adrift at the foot of the table.

Grant, below, said: 'The most important thing is the stability of the club off and on the pitch.

'On the pitch, I think we are doing very well.

'On the football side, I don't think you see a difference between us and a team in 10th place.

'We play the same football - even better as we showed at Fulham, Manchester City and other games.

'So on the football side, creating chances, the tactics and the spirit is there. But we have less points.

'A team that is in 10th is not playing better than us but they are picking up points so it's time that we did.

'We need to continue playing good football and we need to pick up some points.'

Perhaps the biggest worry for Grant is trying to identify where the goals will come from, with top-scorer Frederic Piquionne without a goal since the defeat of Liverpool on December 19.

But the Israeli believes it is a confidence issue rather than a lack of ability. And he admits that the Premier League's transfer embargo stopped him from bringing in a new striker.

Grant said: 'Sometimes when you don't have confidence, then you don't take your chances.

'We have the players that we have now. They are trying their best and I'm sure they will score goals between now and the end of the season.

'But it's not a secret that we were waiting for January and our list had players who know how to score goals.

'But the Premier League decided only to lift the embargo three days before and only for loan players.

'This team was built at the last moment at the beginning of the season and we were waiting for January.

'We didn't have a lot of money but we had players on our list who could have improved the team, but we were not allowed to do it.'

And Grant also hinted that tonight's game had been at the forefront of his selection thoughts before Old Trafford.

However, he stopped short of suggesting he had named a weakened side on Saturday.

He said: 'We were thinking about this game but we also have had a lot of physical pressure on a very small squad.

'I thought we needed to rotate a little bit to keep the players as fresh as we could.

'We changed the team at Manchester United, but tonight will be different again.'

Grant added: 'I have heard the term "must-win game" before but there are 14 games to go and in the next four games, we need to take as many points as we can as we are playing teams around us.'

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