Paul Cook wants to banish the negativity as Pompey make another attempt at an overdue away win on Saturday.

You have to go back to December 19 to find the last time the Blues won on the road and recent trips to Yeovil, Barnet and Exeter have yielded only two points.

Next up it's Stevenage on Saturday but Cook wants everyone to focus on the positive that Pompey have every chance of promotion.

He told www.portsmouthfc.co.uk: 'We have nothing to be down about — we’re fifth in the league and we’re trying to get promoted. The lads are giving us everything they’ve got and now it’s important that they get guided — which is an important job for me and our supporters.

'Sometimes players need to be told how good they are, rather than how bad they are. We’ve scored more goals late on this season than we’ve conceded. This club has come a long way in a short period of time and it’s important that we stay positive in the run-in.

'We want our supporters thinking that we’re going to score again, rather than hanging on to 1-0 leads. We went to Plymouth, Luton Bristol Rovers and Northampton and won by scoring goals and dominating games, so the sooner we get back to that, the better.

'No-one’s been promoted or relegated yet and the thing you have to do is believe — if you don’t believe then it won’t happen. We could end up being promoted automatically, we could end up at Wembley or we could not make the play-offs, but why would we want to concentrate on the latter?'

Adam McGurk, Michael Smith and Gary Roberts are all back in contention after injury.

So tight is the battle for promotion and play-off places that the Blues could be fourth by 5pm on Saturday, or several places outside the play-offs.

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