Winning momentum targeted ahead of Pompey play-offs

The Blues head to Hartlepool today knowing their place in the end-of-season showdown is secure.

Successive victories this week against Wycombe and AFC Wimbledon guaranteed a top-seven League Two finish to the campaign.

Meanwhile, automatic promotion is not entirely out of the question, with it still mathematically possible for the Blues to gatecrash the top three.

With only two games remaining and five points separating Pompey from third-placed Oxford, though, it’s unlikely.

That frustrates Hollands – but he’s still determined to finish the regular season in style and look forward to the play-offs with confidence.

He said: ‘At the start of the season we wanted to get promoted automatically.

‘At times we have let ourselves down maybe when we have needed vital points and haven’t got them.

‘We have always bounced back but unfortunately for us it looks like the play-offs.

‘It is now a case of getting our minds focused on that.

‘We must make sure we continue performing well and kick on in our last two games, looking for six points heading into the play-offs.’

Hollands was part of the Blues team who ended up 16th in the bottom tier last term – the club’s lowest-ever league finish.

And he feels fans should be pleased with the progress made under Paul Cook.

‘Over the course of the season, you can probably count the number of bad performances we have put in on one hand,’ he said.

‘If you talk to any Pompey fan from last season to this season then they will be happy and I think they should be happy.’

– JEFF MARSHMAN