Why Birmingham loanee Steve Seddon does not fear Portsmouth fixture congestion

Saturday’s trip to Fleetwood marks a period of 16 matches in the final 10 weeks of the season as Blues fixtures continue to pile up.

A midweek victory over Exeter has now added a Wembley final in the Leasing.com Trophy to their bulging schedule.

Seddon himself has featured 11 times since his loan arrival from Birmingham almost six weeks ago.

Yet he is relishing the challenges of Pompey’s fixture congestion.

He said: ‘It’s what you want, you get paid to play football, you want to play matches and I think that’s the same with all the lads.

‘I don’t want to rest and miss a match.

‘Obviously, there are times you are really absolutely shattered, but I’m not feeling that, I’m feeling good.

‘You want to be playing the big games towards the end of the season.

‘At the start of the year, if you had said you could have a Wembley trip, Arsenal in the FA Cup, and be at the right end of the table putting a promotion push together – but have to play 16 games in 10 weeks – every lad would say “So?”

‘It’s what you want. You want to be playing games that matter, you don’t want to be in the middle of the table.

‘I like it because games are close, it is quite easy mentally, when you win you want to continue the winning feeling, when you lose you want to get back the winning feeling.’