Negative vibes to greet Portsmouth at Ipswich | Fleetwood's Joey Barton warns players living off past performances ahead of Fratton Park return

The injury-hit Tractor Boys picked up their first win in four league games following late goals from Jon Nolan and Kayden Jackson to move up to third in the League One table.

That’s a point and one place better off than Pompey – who the Portman Road side face next Saturday – after their 2-0 victory against Peterborough.

However, results for Ipswich in recent weeks – including Tuesday night’s goalless draw with Oxford – saw owner Marcus Evans come out to provide Lambert a vote of confidence on Friday.

According to the Ipswich boss, ‘absolute nonsense criticism’ was levelled at him and his team after the U’s stalemate.

And the downbeat boss admitted the criticism will unlikely change following a battling win at Plymouth.

In a tetchy exchange with reporters at Home Park, Lambert told the East Anglian Daily Times: ‘It will not change the negativity.

‘It won’t change it. From them guys, brilliant. We lost two games (to Hull and Charlton) and I think everyone thought we were sitting bottom of the table. We’re sitting third.

‘We don’t have the guys in the treatment room to come back. We have so many guys missing, big guys. It’s not as if it’s young guys you don’t rely on. It’s big guys. Guys who make massive contributions to us.

‘Will it change the negativity? No. It won’t.’

Earlier in his post-match interview, Lambert was unwilling to divulge too much following a difficult week.

When asked about the victory, he said: ‘Yeah... It’s a win... It’s a win. We move on to the next game... We move on... Yeah.’

He was then asked about the performance, prompting the response: ‘Yeah. We’re sitting third I think, joint third. That’s not bad. We move on.’

Then, when questioned about his demeanour, Lambert replied: ‘There are just things going through my heads that’s all. It’s fine. It’s okay.’

He then added: ‘‘I know what it means to me and to the guys and the staff.

‘We came here with the team that we have at the minute. It’s incredible how they’re doing. We just keep trying.

‘As I’ve said before, I’m proud of the guys. Every week they play good football. There are so many problems back home. We had a good game. We didn’t deserve to lose 1-0. We should have had a penalty, which was incredible. Yeah, the guys deserve so much credit.’

Among those on the Ipswich injury list are James Norwood, Gwion Edwards, Teddy Bishop, Freddie Sears and Cole Skuse.

When asked about possible returns for the visit of Pompey, Lambert added: ‘I don’t think so, no. I don’t know if any will come back. I don’t see it.’

Following Saturday’s trip to Portman Road, Kenny Jackett’s troops take on Fleetwood at Fratton Park (Tuesday, December 15).

Joey Barton’s side have seen their promotion push slip in recent outings, following successive defeats against Northampton and Blackpool.

As a result, he’s warned his players they can’t live off last season’s performances, when they reached the play-offs.

Following Fleetwood’s home defeat to Blackpool, Barton said: ‘We set our standards every week.

‘Every single time you step foot on the park you can’t live off past performances.

‘It doesn’t matter what you have done in the past, you have to live in the present and you can’t take anything for granted.

‘We have work to do to better last season’s play-off finishes. We will dust ourselves down and get back on the training ground and aim to turn the last two results around.’

Former Blues boss Michael Appleton saw his Lincoln side retain their second-place position with a 2-0 win at Lincoln.

The Imps are now just two points behind leaders Hull, who drew 1-1 at Oxford.

But Appleton is wary of Lewis Montsma’s growing reputation as the young defender netted his eighth goal of the season.

‘He can go as high as he wants, he really can,’ Appleton told Lincolnshire Live.

‘He’s still learning the game, he still gets caught the wrong side at times.

‘But he’s reasonably quick, he’s athletic, he’s quite strong. The timing of his headers in the second half was much better than it was in the first half.

‘There’s things he can do better but he’s 22. He’s got loads of development left in him. If I was a Premier League scout, he’d be right up there in the defenders I’d be looking at.

‘We just need to make sure we try and keep him for as long as we possibly can.’