‘Time to see what everyone’s got’: The message to Portsmouth fans from dressing room as promotion battle with Derby County, Bolton Wanderers. Peterborough United & Co hits buffers

Joe Rafferty believes Pompey’s struggling promotion form is asking serious questions of the character in the dressing room.

And the Blues defender is adamant the Fratton faithful will see the right answers from their players, as he called for fans to stick with their players.

Pompey fell to a hugely frustrating 2-1 defeat to Cheltenham on Saturday, in a game where they were punished for three minutes of awful defending after dominating large periods of the meeting.

Referee decisions also went against John Mousinho’s side, with penalty calls not given and official Simon Mather failing to play an advantage as Paddy Lane lashed home a first-half strike.

It means Pompey now have one win in six games in all competitions, with their form worryingly tailing off over the past three weeks. Rafferty knows the dressing room has to find the right response - and is adamant they are ready for a battle.

He said: ‘It’s a good time to see what everyone’s got. I’m up for the fight - 100 per cent, all the boys will be up for the fight - because I’ll make sure they are.

‘Me, Marlon (Pack), Joe (Morrell), Colby (Bishop) and even some of the younger lads - we’ll 100 per cent do that. Even some of the younger boys are leaders as well and will be up for the fight.

‘As mad as it sounds, we’ll still in a great position to go and attack the league for the next four months. That’s the way we have to look at it, we have to look at it positively: we’re still in a great position.

‘No, we’re not 10 points clear - but who ever is? Apart from Man City who blow everyone away, no one. Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two, you very rarely see teams blow everyone away.

‘That’s the situation we’re in - we’re in a great position to go and attack the season. You’re not going to have it your own way all season and anyone who thinks you are is deluded.

‘There’s going to be ups and there’s going to be downs. We started the season brilliantly and now we’re one win in five: who cares? We’re still in a great position to attack the rest of the season - so let’s go and do it.

‘It’s a challenge and a great challenge, so let’s put it all out there and go and do it.’

Pompey were backed by 1,517 fans at Whaddon Road, who stuck with their team and made their frustrations clear over the refereeing performance on the final whistle.

Rafferty has asked for more of the same moving forward to get the campaign firing on all cylinders again.

He added: ‘Just stick with us. We’re not going to have it all our own way. Simple.

‘You come to Cheltenham and expect to win. Yes, so did we, but it hasn’t happened. Stick with us, though - stick with us and we’ll attack the rest of the season.’