Former Barnsley and Huddersfield Town defender outlines how Portsmouth can turn around Championship season

The defender believes it’s cutting edge which is the main area letting John Mousinho’s side down this term, after their return to the second tier.

And the summer arrival feels the Blues need to take on the challenge of improving their fortunes in front of goal as a whole to remedy the situation.

Mousinho’s men are still looking for their first maximum 10 games into the season, with it now their worst start to a campaign since the war.

A makeshift defence was a major factor early on amid an incredibly difficult start, before the likes of Regan Poole and Tom McIntyre returned to fitness.

Pompey have failed to score more than one goal in any of their past six outings since the 2-2 draw at Middlesbrough, which included a slightly fortuitous Christian Saydee finish when he was left with an open goal after keeper Seny Dieng collided with Matt Clarke.

The stats show it’s three goals in their past five outings, with four blanks from 10 games so far this term.

Pompey are without key marksman Colby Bishop after he underwent heart surgery, with Kusini Yengi and top scorer Callum Lang due back for QPR next week after injury.

Set-piece threat is another area the Blues have struggled from this term despite a high volume of opportunities. That’s despite earning widespread praise for the goals scored in that department in League One.

Williams feels that is an area Pompey can look at to improve, with the right-back clear the criticism for not scoring freely doesn’t rest solely with his side’s attackers.

He said: ‘We’ve in a two-week break now and we need to analyse and study the start long and hard.

‘We need to look at what’s gone wrong and what we’re doing well.

‘Looking at it, it feels like fine margins.

‘It’s scoring goals and we know how scoring goals can change games. We’re not scoring particularly many goals.

‘That comes from everyone though, that’s not just the strikers.

‘As a team we need to threaten more, whether that’s from set-pieces or anywhere else.

‘We’ve got to keep working hard. We’ve got a tough run of games, we need to keep working hard on those areas and things will come good with that threat.’