Why Ryan Williams doesn't want Portsmouth to deliver more cup success this season

The winger believes the cup runs which created fixture congestion in the past two campaigns have to be put on the backburner, in favour of delivering in League One.

Kenny Jackett’s played a phenomenal 62 games in the 2018-19 season and were on course to match that total last term, before playing 52 fixtures in a curtailed campaign.

Williams feels his team have to prioritise the 46 league matches which will decide if the Championship is reached.

He said: ‘To be quite honest, we’re going to have a lot of games this season because we always end up doing well in the cups.

‘You never go into a game wanting to lose but the league has to be the focus this season.

‘Obviously there’s the FA Cup, but there has to be more focus on the league and not on the cups.’

With a smaller group in place amid the restrictions brought by the salary cap and squad controls, Williams feels handling how quickly the games come at Pompey increases in importance.

He added: ‘It’s even more the case with a smaller squad.

‘Last season we had two teams of seasoned professionals with people who’d had good careers.

‘There were good players out of the squad and sometimes it can be a hard task for a manager to keep everyone onside.

‘Now everyone is going to get used and everyone is going to have take on more responsibility.

‘We aren’t going to be able to go with the same XI in every game, so people are going to have to be ready to come back into the team when they aren’t in it.

‘You can be upset but you have to have your head right because you’re going to be coming back in. Everyone is properly in this together.’

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