Jackett: I know Portsmouth side which can deliver promotion

Kenny Jackett promised he knows his best team as he challenged his new-look Pompey to kick-start their promotion charge.
Pompey manager Kenny JackettPompey manager Kenny Jackett
Pompey manager Kenny Jackett

The Blues welcome back their attacking options as they aim to find the form that can get their bid to make the Championship back on track against Plymouth.

Jackett’s side badly need to arrest a run of four league games without a win - a series stretching back to New Year’s Day - at the division’s form side.

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That sees them go into the Home Park clash in third place, their lowest position since August.

Pompey manager Kenny JackettPompey manager Kenny Jackett
Pompey manager Kenny Jackett

Jackett can call on the fire-power of Omar Bogle and James Vaughan in Devon after ineligibility against QPR, while Viv Solomon-Otabor also comes into the equation.

After making six January signings and five players departing, the Pompey boss is adamant he knows what his best starting XI will be as he aims to get the season firing again.

Jackett said: ‘I do (know my best team). I know where I want to get to anyway.

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‘Sometimes it’s disrupted by injury and ineligibility with regard to different competitions.

‘But I don’t think we’re going to have that problem from now on.

‘Tom Naylor’s suspended for two games. Those things happen.

‘The availability for the Checkatrade Trophy game is quite high, though.

‘We’ve got three players out for that one game and we’ll go strong for it.

‘It doesn’t seem too bad now.

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‘It doesn’t feel like a period where there will be too much chopping and changing, other than injuries and suspensions which do happen.

‘Thus you go into a window and you try to get as strong as possible.

‘In terms of the right team and strongest combination, you need to find it out quickly as a manager - like yesterday. That is the case in this situation.

‘There isn’t a lot of time to settle down - we have to hit the ground running now. That’s the job.

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‘But I do still feel we have good players here, we have capable players capable of getting promotion this year.

‘They are capable of putting the type of run together we need.’

Continuity was a big hallmark of Pompey’s success over the first half of the season, but Jackett has been unable to name an unchanged side since the Boxing Day trip to Gillingham.

The Blues manager feels it’s results which are now needed to enable there to be a consistency of team selection.

He added: ‘Form settles a team and a run against injuries.

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‘But it’s mainly form. Good performances and good results encourage people and get managers the chance to pick the same team again.

‘For all the new lads they will want to know where they are in the pecking order.

‘They’ll want to know what’s required of them, and, most importantly, they want a chance to do well.’