Ryan Williams assesses reasons behind awful Portsmouth away form which threatens promotion

The Blues have lost nine of the 17 matches on their travels in League One this season.

The latest defeat arrived at Peterborough on Saturday, when Darren Ferguson’s side produced an impressive display to humble Pompey.

Had it not been for the heroics of Alex Bass, the below-par visitors’ 2-0 loss would have been by a considerably greater margin.

The outcome is successive defeats to Coventry, Fleetwood and now Peterborough – all rivals in the hunt for automatic promotion.

Just as much of a concern is trips to Ipswich (March 21), Oxford (March 28) and Rotherham (April 10) are still to come away.

And winger Williams was unable to put his finger on the reasons for the alarming form on the road.

He said: ‘I don’t know really why our away form is how it is, for whatever reason it hasn’t quite happened for us in those games.

‘I’m not really sure why to be honest, but I suppose it’s the same for other promotion rivals when they come to us, they lose as well. They have given us one and we have given them one back.

‘I wouldn’t say it was to do with nerves, no-one is thinking about it, it’s a bit too early to be thinking “If we beat these, blah, blah, blah”.

‘At Coventry, I definitely felt we deserved a point, it was a tight game.

‘At Fleetwood, we probably didn't really deserve a lot, they scored early, the conditions played into their hands, we huffed and puffed and again didn’t score.

‘We didn’t have any clear-cut chances on Saturday either, it didn’t quite go for us, but we are still going.

‘We had actually improved our away form until these last three matches.’

Jackett’s men had registered five successive victories on their travels until last month’s 1-0 loss at Coventry.

Still, they now find themselves sixth in League One.

Williams added: ‘We are in a good position.

‘Following our start to the season, you would probably have taken the chance of going joint-second on Tuesday night.

‘The boys have got it together and sorted it out.’