Ryan Williams: Another loss and Portsmouth can forget about automatic promotion

The Australian international is convinced the Blues will be forced to focus solely on the play-offs should they endure another loss in their final 10 League One outings.

Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Peterborough has left Kenny Jackett’s men in sixth spot, encouragingly still three points off second place with a game in hand.

However, five teams are level on 59 points, among them both the Blues and the Posh during the congested promotion battle.

Fleetwood visit Fratton Park on Tuesday night, while there are trips to other promotion rivals Ipswich, Oxford United and Rotherham.

And Williams concedes another loss would finish any aspirations of reaching the Championship automatically.

He said: ‘We have 10 games left, we can’t really afford to lose any more.

‘It's as simple as that if we want to try to get into the top two, which I am sure everybody wants to do and I think we are more than capable of achieving.

‘We have to keep going, we can’t dwell on stuff like defeat at Peterborough, you have to bounce back.

‘Personally, I feel we can’t really lose any more games. We just can’t rely on other teams, you don’t want to focus on anyone but yourself.

‘We have five home games remaining, so we'll be looking to win as many as possible. We are in a good position, we lost on Saturday but it’s not all doom and gloom, win our game in hand on Tuesday and we’re third.

‘We just have to keep working, keep smiling, there’s no point in being upset about the Peterborough loss, they were a bit better than us on the day and that’s how it is sometimes.’

Kenny Jackett’s men now have three consecutive matches at Fratton Park, where they are unbeaten in the league this season.

Following Tuesday evening’s visit of Fleetwood, on the horizon are Accrington (March 14) and Doncaster (March 17).

It’s an opportunity to strengthen their placing in the race to reach the Championship.

And Williams is relishing the challenge ahead on home soil that has proven so important this season.

He added: ‘We have three successive home games now, which I’m looking forward to.

‘Let’s just try to keep our heads up and look at the positives rather than negatives at this point of the season. Keep morale high and go and win these three games at home.

‘We are sixth with a game in hand on all but Coventry, so win our next match and its third – so let’s just keep the pressure on the front two.’