Portsmouth boss considers skipper's return

The Blues boss has to decide whether to restore his arch poacher to the starting XI as his side head to Rochdale.

Pitman is pushing for inclusion at Spotland on what would be his 50th Pompey appearance, after bagging a strike when leaving the bench against Wycombe last weekend.

That means the 30-year-old has scored on each of his past three outings as he aims to depose Oli Hawkins from Jackett's side.

It's been just a single league start for the Pompey captain this term, but Jackett has seen his hunger to regain his starting position.

Jackett said: '˜I have (got selection considerations).

'˜I'm pleased with Brett, even if both him and myself were disappointed he didn't score the winner last weekend.

'˜That's the way it works, but he's trained hard this week and will 100 per cent be pushing for a start or starts over this period.

'˜That's what he's there for and is part of his job along with winning headers, holding the ball up and bringing people into play, but it's no small matter scoring goals.

'˜I was reading about his record this week. He's coming up to 50 games and it's a fantastic (goal) return.

'˜He's trained hard this week and I don't think there's been too many clues in terms of team selection with the training.

'˜Yes, he will be pushing hard for a start on Saturday '“ but so will many others.

'˜As we go into this period of games he's definitely going to be involved, there's no doubt about that.'

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