Regan Poole has spoken of the importance of following a midweek defeat with a weekend win as Pompey continue their search for the points that will secure Championship safety.

The 2-1 loss at Wrexham on Tuesday night was Pompey's third away game in eight days and most would agree the return of six points - from earlier wins at Charlton and Millwall - was above expectation for a side who have again struggled on the road.

Poole said they were downcast to lose at the Racecourse Ground, where a 2-0 interval deficit was reduced by Zak Swanson's goal early in the second half with the Blues unable to find an equaliser.

And he said it was now full focus on a return to Fratton take on the play-off chasing Tigers this weekend.

Poole told club media: 'If you’d have said at the start of last week that we’d take six points from these three away fixtures, we probably would have snatched your hand off, but it could have been nine.

'We came out fighting and now we have to make sure we get a win on Saturday when we’re back at Fratton Park.'

Poole said of the Wrexham loss: 'It’s disappointing because we lost the game in the first half, when we were pretty poor. Everything we’ve done in the past two away matches, we just didn’t do. We didn’t compete well enough and they were by far the better team.

'We went backwards too many times and every time they broke, they did so with real purpose and spun us in behind. So we had to have a go and were much better after the break – we had more than enough chances to get something.

'It’s hard to have a right good go when you’re two goals down because it could get worse, but that’s what we did. We went close, were brave on the ball and totally dominant. I thought we can take a lot of credit from that.'

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