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Pompey host Exeter aiming to improve in aspects of early season displays

After a very promising week on the road, Pompey are back home on Tuesday night - aiming to show wins at Forest Green in the cup and Leyton Orient in League One were no flukes nor flashes in the pan.

After needing a late Kusini Yengi equaliser to rescue a point in their first home game, against Bristol Rovers, Pompey will hope to make a better impression in front of their own fans second time around.

But it is unlikely to be straightforward against an Exeter side who have had a good start to the season and sit just one place behind Pompey in the early top seven, also with one win and one draw so far.

Blues defender Regan Poole told the club website: 'I played against them a couple of times last season and know that they’re a really good side. But it’s really all about what we do and we want to make sure that we take the game to them on Tuesday.

'There are things that we know we can improve on – especially at the start of matches – but we’ll be going for the three points. We go into the game on the back of a strong performance at Leyton Orient at the weekend – and we were delighted to keep that first clean sheet.

'We weren’t at our best in the first 20 minutes, but once that first goal went in, we really settled down and were outstanding in the second half.'

For his part, boss John Mousinho knows it is far too early to get carried about away the past couple of decent results the Blues have recorded.

He told the website: 'The second half (at Leyton Orient) was really good – we were professional to get the third and fourth goals, and excellent in seeing the game out.

'It can be heard to stick to the job when there’s a party atmosphere in the away end – and the fans were certainly enjoying themselves – but we didn’t mess about. The hardest thing is finding the balance because the supporters can get carried away and we have to make sure we don’t.

'You do have to keep your feet on the ground, but we don’t want to dampen everything down because it was a well deserved result and we have to take confidence from that.'

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