'Change needed': Portsmouth skipper's Championship relegation admission after QPR hammering
Pompey are 21st in the Championship after six matches without a win
Marlon Pack insists Pompey remain in control of their relegation destiny.
Yet the skipper is adamant changing their ways is required if the Blues are to haul themselves away from the trapdoor into League One over the final eight matches.
With one point from their last six fixtures, John Mousinho’s men are spiralling towards the bottom three - with Saturday’s Loftus Road thumping a huge alarm call.
The 6-1 humiliation arguably represented the lowest point of their head coach’s three years in charge, with the travelling support chanting ‘You’re not fit to wear the shirt’ before half-time.
However, following favourable results elsewhere, Pompey remain one place above the relegation zone.
And, clutching on that minor positive, Pack is convinced the Blues’ Championship future remains in their own hands.
‘We are still in control’
He told The News: ‘The reality is we are still in control of the season, but it has to be better.
‘Maybe I am guilty of it myself, thinking we are not in danger, we’re playing really well, it’s going to turn for us, it’s going to turn for us.
‘Maybe a result like this actually really gives us a kick up the backside. We are down here for a reason - and we have to back that up.
‘Something needs to change, that’s now six games without a win. I know some of those matches have been really marginal and - I will stand by it and I will get stick for it - but we have been the better side in the majority.
‘However, we can’t keep saying that. We need to find a way to get a result. That’s what matters now at this stage of the season.’
One place above the Championship relegation zone
Oxford United’s 2-0 defeat at Southampton and Leicester City’s goalless draw at Watford ensures both sides currently remain below the Blues.
However, fellow strugglers Blackburn and West Brom have now pulled three points clear of Mousinho’s men as they find momentum at a vital time of the season.
The international break will at least allow Mousinho’s team to try to find a way out of the mess they currently find themselves in, with a Good Friday trip to Norwich (April 3) their next fixture.
Pack was clearly shell-shocked after the Loftus Road hammering and afterwards apologised to supporters for their dreadful display.
Emerging from a 45-minute dressing-room inquest to address the media, he was adamant the players were also hurting, just like the furious Pompey fans.
He added: ‘We know how bad we feel right now, we are so low at the minute and maybe that is the positive - we don’t want to feel like this at all.’