If anything is guaranteed to derail a team's play-off charge, it's talk of the dates for the semi-finals and final.

The League One dates were revealed on Friday and Pompey fans, along with those of all other clubs chasing a spot, will have looked at them and perhaps made a light pencil note of them somewhere.

But of course, it's easy to get ahead of yourselves at times like this and Pompey have a long, long way to go before they can start thinking about a chance to grab that final promotion spot.

Three of the clubs currently in with a realistic hope of a top six finish will not secure it and Pompey will not want to be one of them, and with three of their final five games against others in the race, it does feel like their fate is virtually in their own hands.

The run-in starts at Plymouth today in a fixture that always seems to have something riding on it - although back in November, when the Blues beat Argyle 1-0 at Fratton, it was at a time when the men in green and white were languishing near the bottom of the table and a play-off bid for them looked a pipedream.

Now, as the old rivals meet again, Plymouth are in pole position to take one of the two spots, fifth and sixth, that do seem up for grabs.

Blues boss Kenny Jackett has spoken of how this is a clash of two big clubs whose statures and support deserve successful times.

It's hard to argue, and if course it's not impossible that both will get in the play=offs. If they do it feels almost inevitable they will, at some stage, meet again.

For now, though, Pompey need to remember the old adage - take it one game at a time. Let's see where that takes them, and us.

Oh and those play-off dates - what are they? We daren't say.

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