Pompey have developed a pattern. Since the start of September, their league record reads lose - win - lose - win - lose. It's a sequence that all in royal blue hope to see continue for one more game - Bristol Rovers' visit to Fratton on Tuesday night.
It's a lower-mid-table battle if ever there was one - 15th hosting 14th in a clash of two clubs who have yet to fire on all cylinders.
Kenny Jackett felt the Blues lacked energy in Saturday's 2-0 loss at Scunthorpe - and that was one of the attributes he had directly spoken about leading up to the visit to Glanford Park.
That could see one or two changes to the line-up at home to Rovers, and with Brett Pitman and Conor Chaplin both facing late fitness tests, he could even be forced into more changes than he would like.
Jackett would love nothing more than for his team to score back to back wins in Fratton's two games this week - Tuesday's game is followed by Oldham's arrival on Saturday - which would be the first time they had won successive games under him.
He told the Pompey website: "We feel capable of going on a winning run, but saying you’re close isn’t good enough — you actually have to go and do it. There wasn’t enough energy at Scunthorpe on Saturday and we didn’t have any purpose going forward. We didn’t do enough with the ball.
'Bristol Rovers were seventh in the league last season and will want to go one better this time and get a top six berth. I’m sure they’ll be eyeing up the Championship like we all are and will have aspirations of getting there. They have a big squad and a lot of quality, but while we respect every opponent, it’s up to us to find our rhythm.'
The Gas will come to Fratton buoyed up a 3-1 home win over Blackpool at the weekend in which Billy Bodin, Ryan Sweeney and Ellis Harrison were all on target. They could include former Bognor and Selsey defender Tom Broadbent in their side.
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