The number of weeks Portsmouth have spent in the League One automatic promotion places

Pompey's automatic promotion hopes hang in the balance - but how long have they spent in League One's top two?
Portsmouth manager Kenny JackettPortsmouth manager Kenny Jackett
Portsmouth manager Kenny Jackett

Pompey's automatic promotion hopes hang in the balance - but how long have they spent in League One's top two?

On New Year's Day, Kenny Jackett's side sat five points clear at the top, following a 2-1 victory against AFC Wimbledon.

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But a nightmare dip in form has dramatically changed the promotion picture.

Portsmouth playersPortsmouth players
Portsmouth players

With just two league wins to their name in 2019, the Blues have seen both Luton and Barnsley leapfrog them into the automatic promotion places, while Sunderland have moved into third place in the standings.

Pompey now find themselves eight points adrift of the automatics.

Yet, rewind back to a 3-1 win at Rochdale in September, and life as a Blues fan couldn't have felt any better as they moved to the top of the table for the first time this season.

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With that in mind, we've crunched the numbers to see where Pompey have spent the majority of the 2018-19 season.

Graph of Pompey's league positions this termGraph of Pompey's league positions this term
Graph of Pompey's league positions this term

If only it was similar reading right now.

As shown in the graph provided, Jackett's men have spent the majority of the season in the top two - and top of the league.

Not once have they slipped outside the top four - minus the opening two games of the season - a lowly position only attained when the table was still taking shape.

An impressive run of form between the victory at The Dale and the 2-1 defeat at Oxford United saw the Blues occupy top spot for just over 16 weeks, before a poor start to the new year ticked in.

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In total, only 10 weeks of the season have seen Pompey spend time outside the top two, having fallen from third to fourth in the past seven weeks.

And since then, the Blues have not been able to return to the automatic promotion places - something which looks increasingly likely to stand...