Baker: Fixtures give Pompey golden chance

The winger believes the run of games the Blues face over the second half of the campaign gives them a great chance of sealing automatic promotion.

And Baker is predicting a charge into the top three for his team over an exciting conclusion to the season.

Pompey are now entering a favourable run of games in comparison to what they’ve faced this term.

That includes all of their remaining midweek fixtures being at Fratton Park.

And the 34-year-old feels that will benefit his side.

Baker said: ‘You can’t look past the other teams.

‘But when you look at the fixtures, you’d take the second half over the first half of the season. We’ve got a lot of tough games out of the way.

‘You can almost go through them and think you should pick up points here and there.

‘I’d like to win the league still, but you’d certainly hope that would help us to get into the top three.

‘We’d probably take that now, but in football you never know what happens.

‘It’s 100 per cent within us. I’d be hugely disappointed if we didn’t go up automatically.

‘I know there are some good teams and Doncaster look like they’re running away with it.

‘But I’ve seen this stage of the season many times before.

‘Every year there’s teams who do that and we’re not miles off it. A few points.

‘I’d be shocked if the teams above us kept their runs up and had the same runs over the second half of the season as they had the first.

‘If they match the points they have now, fair play to them. But I personally can’t see it. Only time will tell.

‘These teams below us are winning games. That’s what makes it exciting. It’s going to be a big finish and exciting to be involved in.

‘If you look at Wycombe and Barnet, we scored four and five goals against them, but they are flying.

‘You’d fancy beating them in the play-offs, but we’re looking at the top three. That’s what we’re aiming to do.’

There’s been plenty of talk over what points return the Blues will need to make the top three.

But Baker is refusing to get wrapped up in that debate.

He added: ‘I try not to think about totals because it could be 80 points or 90 points.

‘No-one looks at how many points it takes – it’s about going up. That’s the aim and we believe we can do that.

‘You can end up looking too far ahead if you are looking at points. If things don’t go to plan you can end up chasing your tail.

‘I think you’d have to be crazy to look at things too much at this stage and try to work it out.

‘It’s probably better not to look at the league at all and do you business.

‘Having said that, it’s the first thing I do after a game! We just need to look at ourselves, though.’