Former Leeds United defender's revealing insight into factors fuelling Portsmouth promotion charge

Conor Shaughnessy revealed the invigorated unity which is driving Pompey promotion charge.

And the defender has revealed his happiness on and off the pitch at Fratton Park, as his season goes from strength to strength.

Shaughnessy has been an outstanding success story this term with his form across 37 appearances surpassing even his own expectations.

The 27-year-old has found contentment on and off the pitch, recently becoming a father for the second time. That follows on from both Marlon Pack and Colby Bishop announcing their partner’s are pregnant in recent weeks.

Shaughnessy believes that happiness is reflected in Pompey’s success and has allowed the group to come through some testing moments.

He said: ‘There’s a lot going on and a lot of good feelings and good times around the club. There’s a good group of lads and a massive part of the feeling is because we’re winning on the pitch, which is keeping everyone happy.

‘It goes in a circle a bit, the happier you are off the pitch can have an influence on the pitch. It works both ways.

‘You look at the group, and it gets mentioned, it’s so together. If you look at any successful team in sport, a lot of it is togetherness.

‘It’s down to that how we react when we go through a tough patch. That’s down to the lads getting around each other and not throwing their toys out of the pram - and instead putting it right.

‘We’ve got a really good group in that sense and the mentality of everyone, not just the players on the pitch, but the squad players as well.

‘Look at Raggs (Raggett) coming into the team. He’s a prime example of someone who may would’ve thought it wasn’t right for him to come out of the team.

‘But he got his head down, no drama and got himself ready to come straight back in - and has been very important in this run.’

Pompey go to Charlton this weekend aiming to extend strong form, winning six of their past seven games across an unbeaten period. That comes off the back of a testing period over Christmas which saw the Blues win just once in six League One encounters.

Shaughnessy added: ‘We set such a high standard in the first half of the season. Maybe there was always going to be a slight blip. I think we went through that, but it shows the mentality and the togetherness of the group to come through the other side.

‘It didn’t affect us long term and we showed we can put in the performances, whether we’ve been on a bad run or had injuries we’ve got the players to be able to bounce back from that.’