‘We owe them’: Josh Murphy’s Cardiff City vow as in-form Portsmouth winger takes on former side

And the in-form winger made no attempt to play down the significance of tomorrow’s clash at Fratton Park, and what it means for the Championship survival dogfight.

Murphy goes up against up the side he spent four years with, including a season in the Premier League, after his £11m move to Wales from Norwich in 2018.

And the 29-year-old does so in excellent form, after his impressive showings continued with a man-of-the-match performance in the unfortunate 2-1 loss at Sheffield United.

Pompey will be looking to settle the score for one of the worst Championship performances of the season, as they fell to a weak 2-0 reverse at the Cardiff City Stadium last October.

That was a display which angered boss John Mousinho, with Murphy not hiding from the fact it’s a performance his side have to put right in front of their own fans.

He said: ‘I always look forward to playing against my old side and seeing familiar faces, staff and players. That’s always nice, but it’s business at the end of the day.

‘We need the three points and this one is a six pointer - there’s no hiding away from it.

‘We need to put in a great performance at home, get the points and then move forward.

‘There’s been quite a few games this season where the manager has said before “we owe these one”.

Wasn’t acceptable

‘Cardiff is definitely one where we owe them a performance, because the performance at their place wasn’t acceptable.

‘We didn’t meet our standards, but if we can take how we played at Sheffield United into that game then hopefully it can be a special night.’

Despite the Sheffield United reverse, Murphy is taking encouragement from the quality of his team’s display against the promotion contenders at Bramall Lane.

Pompey had the better of it for long periods against Chris Wilder’s side and certainly carved out the better chances, though a black mark has to be not making more of the chances which came their way.

Murphy sees a team which is now looking sturdier as players return to the fray after injury lay-offs.

He added: ‘We’re looking so much more solid and stable.

‘We’re getting players back from injury and what we’re doing is something we want to build on.

‘The foundations are there from the past two games. We’ve been really good - but now we want to pick up more points.’