Play-off place or no play-off place - Pompey simply must finish the season with a flourish.
Boss Kenny Jackett warmed up for the visit of Gillingham on Saturday by telling his players that even if they did not manage a top six finish this term, they needed to show now that they could be a force to be reckoned with in 2018-19.
Pompey head into the clash with the Gills in 11th place but only four points off sixth-placed Plymouth.
Jackett told the Pompey website: 'We had a weekend off because of the weather and since then it’s been a hard week of training, which we’ve needed. It was pretty even in our last game against Blackpool, but we ran out of options and not much happened in the final stages.
'So we’ve refocused and realigned the players, setting them their tasks. We’ve talked about Gillingham and also the rest of the season. The bar’s high in terms of what we want to do and we’ve seen other teams win fixtures on the trot to climb into the top six.
'That’s still there for us, but we need a good run and have to focus on trying to win each game that comes along. We’ll have to see where it takes us and if it’s not quite enough to reach the play-offs — which is our number one target — then we still have to finish strongly with a view to attacking the division next season.
'It’s quite a young group, but we have the character and quality, and are very much looking forward to Saturday.'
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