Kenny Jackett: Fortress Fratton will weaken without Portsmouth fans driving us on against Oxford

The first leg of the Blues’ play-off semi-final with Oxford United is booked in as the final Fratton Park fixture of the 2019-20 campaign.

Jackett’s men possessed the only unbeaten home league record outside the Premier League when the season was initially suspended through the coronavirus crisis.

Overall, it has been 13-and-a-half months undefeated in league and play-off matches since losing 3-2 to Peterborough in April 2019.

If that record wasn’t impressive enough, Pompey have lost just three times at Fratton Park in all competitions since mid-January 2019 – against Posh, Southampton and Arsenal.

However, with matches to be played behind closed doors for the foreseeable future, Jackett concedes it will impact on the Blues’ remarkable home advantage.

He told The News: ‘Fratton Park is certainly going to change.

‘You could say travelling, familiarity and crowd are the things which go into building up what is a definite home advantage. No doubt.

‘Whether that changes the statistics by having no home crowd there can be debated. I would say it probably will.

‘We’ve had a very good season at Fratton Park, but you never know if that would have continued. We might have stood it on its head in the run-in and that’s the beauty of football.

‘The three things that build up a good home record are the fans, familiarity, travelling. Of that, I would say it’s strongly weighted towards fans more than anything else.

‘Now they will no longer be at our matches.

‘Still, we have that chance of the play-offs and the opportunity to have a successful year. It’s something we all have to be ready for and look forward to.’

Using the unweighted points per game model, Pompey finished fifth in a League One season officially curtailed on Tuesday.

Those clubs unhappy at the outcome have pointed out a favourable remaining fixture list against a number of struggling sides.

Yet Jackett believes the unpredictability of late-season football means such arguments are not necessarily realistic.

He added: ‘Managers saying they’ve got some of the bottom teams to play, well at the end of a season it’s tough to play the bottom teams.

‘It’s not easy to get points off them at that stage. Really, it’s the ones in the middle that take their foot off the gas a little and lose their focus.

‘Also, towards the end of the season, it’s great to play the top teams around you because it has such a big effect home and away.

‘Trying to predict those things is not what anybody should do.

‘The season stopped for good reason – and you are where you are. That’s what I believe.’

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