Kenny Jackett seeks Portsmouth positives after unimpressive start to season continues at Rochdale

Yet Kenny Jackett insists he is not disheartened by the Blues’ uninspiring start to the League One campaign.

Pompey were yesterday held to a goalless draw at Rochdale – making it the same scoreline for successive games.

Jackett’s men find themselves 17th in League One after two matches with two points. Although, admittedly, still another 44 fixtures to go.

Nonetheless, they have yet to score and still to concede in a massively frustrating beginning to the season.

But Jackett remains confident his team can stage a promotion challenge.

He told The News: ‘Look, would we want to be winning? Definitely.

‘Would we want to be winning yesterday? Definitely, yes.

‘Similarly, it’s a long season, there are some encouraging signs and I don’t think we look a bad team so far.

‘But we want to be trying to finish them off.

‘I am confident in terms of the season, we have enough character to keep working hard and doing well.

‘We built up a good head of steam in the second half and didn’t look a bad team, that is a lot which we can base it on going forward.’

The Blues were far brighter after the break at Spotland following an awful first half.

John Marquis – last season’s joint-top scorer – wasted two golden opportunities to earn an away victory.

Regardless, Pompey looked a greater threat in attacking situations in the second half, while Michael Jacobs came on as a substitute to show glimpses of what he can bring.

Certainly disappointment was obvious among the Blues players at the final whistle in a match they would have anticipated more from.

Now they entertain Wigan at Fratton Park next Saturday as they seek to finally get this League One season up and running.

Jackett added: ‘We built up a good head of steam in the second half and I did feel we were going to get the breakthrough and win the game.

‘Ultimately, it didn’t happen, but I still felt there were positives.’