Tom Naylor reveals Portsmouth lessons learnt from table-topping mistakes of the past

The Blues today lead the division for the first time in almost two years, after toppling leaders Hull 2-0.

Depending on how Doncaster fare in their next two games, Kenny Jackett’s men could be top at Christmas.

Skipper Naylor was part of that Blues side which last led League One, during an all-conquering four-month spell in the first half of the 2018-19 season.

And he insists the survivors from the bitterly disappointing outcome which saw a fourth-placed finish won’t let that happen again.

He said: ‘It’s massive being top, whatever stage it’s at.

‘Being top at this time of the season is really good, but we need to stay there and it's only us that’s going to keep us there

‘We need to keep working hard every single game, every single training session and keep going up until we get that automatic spot.

‘We have been there before, we know what we’ve got to do. The lads have experience, there are players still here from last time, hopefully we can see it through.

‘I think we’ve learnt from a few years ago, we know what we need to do, we know what we are capable of.

‘We’ve got to do it ourselves, nobody is going to do that for us.’

In addition to Naylor, Craig MacGillivray, Lee Brown, Ben Close, Ronan Curtis and Jack Whatmough remain from that 2018-19 side.

They seized the summit of League One at the end of September 2018 – and remained there until overtaken while on FA Cup duty against QPR in January 2019.

Once they lost 3-2 at Luton later that month, they never again featured higher than third for the remainder of the campaign.

Instead the Hatters secured automatic promotion, with Barnsley finishing as runners-up.

Claiming fourth spot, Jackett’s men subsequently lost out 1-0 to Sunderland in the play-off semi-final – it wouldn’t be the last time they endured heartache in that format.

On Tuesday night, a goalless draw with Fleetwood marked the first time Pompey had reached the top two since.

Then, in last night’s top-of-the-table encounter, the Blues leapfrogged over Hull.

Now, following an impressive run of results, Pompey have established themselves as genuine promotion contenders.

Naylor added: ‘We said at the start of this period of games that these were massive.

‘To be fair, we’ve collected 10 points and four clean sheets from them, so done exactly what we wanted. Full credit to the players for that.

‘We just have to keep going and working hard.’

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