Matt Clarke: Portsmouth will be looking up not down if Charlton threat can be knocked back

Matt Clarke is looking for the five-point gap between the teams in fourth and fifth in League One to become eight.

From there it would give the Blues the platform to focus on the teams above them in the race for the automatic promotion places.

It would also leave Charlton with a massive task to get back into the fight for a top two place.

Clarke said: ‘You have got to be hopefully looking up. We want to be thinking we can catch the team in second, rather than “oh no the team in sixth are catching us”.

‘We want to be looking forward and thinking positively that we can move forward, rather than we have got to really hold our spot in fourth because that’s not where we want to be.

‘At this time of the season every game is massive.

‘The finish line is almost in sight. Every game is a massive game.’

Clarke, who will be fit to play after having stitches in a head wound following the Bradford game, feels Charlton have the quality to do some damage.

The Blues centre-back warned they can’t be underestimated

He added: ‘Charlton are a good side, they are a good footballing side.

‘First half at our place they showed what they could do. They showed their teeth a bit, showed they are one of the top sides in the league.

‘We are not underestimating them by any stretch of the imagination, we know what a tough job we have got on our hands.

‘We have also got to embrace it because they are a team around us. They are the games you want to be involved in.’

The match on Saturday kicks off at 5.30pm at the Valley.