Danny Cowley reveals catch-up concern over Portsmouth fixtures and thanks Navy for coming to the rescue at weekend

And the Blues boss remained hopeful the current cold weather would not put Tuesday night’s Papa John’s Trophy game against Stevenage in jeopardy – and add to a potential pile-up of games over the second half of the season.

Pompey’s League One trip to Accrington at the weekend was called off more than 24 hours in advance of kick-off because of the freezing conditions that have swept the country over the past week.

Temperatures have barely risen in the days after that postponement, forcing Cowley and his players to temporarily relocate from their Roko training base to the Navy’s all-weather facilities on Burnaby Road on Saturday in order to carry on training.

Ground staff at Fratton Park have also been made to change approach during the current cold snap, with covers being applied to the PO4 pitch since the beginning of last week.

Such measures give the head coach hope that the Blues’ last-16 Trophy game against League Two Boro can go ahead without the need to reschedule it for the new year.

And that’s proving reassuring for Cowley, who doesn’t want his side falling further behind in their fixture programme.

At present Pompey have played fewer games – as many as three in some instances – than all seven teams presently above them in the league table.

‘We’ve done everything in our power to ensure the Stevenage game goes ahead,’ said Cowley.

‘I think the covers have been on the pitch right throughout this cold snap.

‘We took the covers off the Fratton Park pitch this morning just to allow the pitch to breathe, because that’s important as well.

‘The covers are going back on this evening, hopefully we’ll keep the cold weather away and we’re ready to go tomorrow night because we’re a little bit behind the fixture schedule now.

‘We’re three games behind some other teams in our league.

‘Almost all the results on Saturday went our way. I think if I could have picked the results beforehand, I would have had them like that.

‘But, yeah, we feel we’re in a really good position even though we are a little bit behind the schedule.

‘And we’re really appreciative of the Navy for allowing us to use their all-weather surface and their 3G pitch’.

If Pompey win their games in hand, they could move up to fifth in the table and reclaim their place in the play-off positions.