'Tough? It's been great': Portsmouth favourite on the remarkable 30 days which surprised the Fratton faithful

Last month was clearly going to be a stern examination of the Blues’ promotion credentials with a hugely testing fixture list.

Faced with Peterborough and Lincoln at home, along with trips to Derby, Barnsley and Wigan, nobody could have anticipated the remarkable outcome.

Yet John Mousinho’s men would reap a stunning 13 points from a possible 15, including Saturday’s 2-1 triumph at the DW Stadium.

Poole told The News: ‘At the start of the month, we looked at the fixtures and you knew it was going to be a tough month, but if you want to be successful you need to get maximum points from as many games as you can, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing.

‘We knew it would be a tough month, but we didn’t fear or worry about it. It is what it is, at the end of the day.

‘To be fair, no matter who we face, we’re going into every game trying to win, we’re not trying to sit back, we are positive, going for three points.

‘Assessing September now it’s over, it was a brilliant month for us as a team. Look at the character that we’ve built, we’ve gone behind in so many games, Saturday as well.

‘Obviously we’d like to start games a little quicker than we do, but that will come. Look how we started against Barnsley, it was like a house on fire.

‘We back ourselves against any team, but we knew it was going to be a tough month. We’ve had a lot on the road, gone to some tough places like Derby, Barnsley and Wigan, but look at the points we’ve picked up.

‘That’s something to build on. If you want to be successful, you need to win at those places.

‘It has been a tough month, I’m glad to get it over with, yet we can look back on it and acknowledge we’ve had a really good go at it - and, actually, it has been a great month.’

Of the four wins and one draw collected last month, it is the trip to Oakwell which stands out for Poole.

Yet it was their second-half display in the 3-2 success which the defender cherishes most, rather than that captivating opening 45 minutes.

He added: ‘The best one was Barnsley and the way we saw the game out.

‘We were brilliant in the first half and it was hard to replicate that. They got a goal early in the second half, so we knew the match was going to pan out the way it did.

‘But that’s the game I look back on and am delighted with the three points. If we had let that slip, considering how well we played in the first half, it would have been devastating.

‘We take a lot of positives from that because we know what we can do. That gave us an insight – if we perform like that, then we can blow away any team.’