Shoot - but at goal, not ourselves in the foot. That's the message as Pompey head for a pivotal clash at Blackburn this weekend.

John Mousinho feels Pompey have been doing plenty right in recent games and wants his players to remember those positive things.

But he also wants them to stop shooting themselves in the foot - as they did when gifting Hull the only goal of the game last weekend at Fratton Park.

The Bluers head to Ewood one point and one place abover Rovers in the table and have 12 games left to save themselves. You feel the priority in this one is not to lose.

Mousinho told PFC media he was glad to have a midweek free of match action so as to work with the players.

He told the website: 'The busy run takes a physical toll on the players, although perhaps not visibly because we looked very strong during those games. But another midweek match might have been one step too far for us and so it’s been nice to have that break.

'There haven’t been too many things that we’ve needed to work on in training and it’s allowed us to take our foot off the gas a little bit. For us, there’s no point in dwelling on the fact that we’ve been unlucky in our past couple of fixtures and to take the positives, while learning not to shoot ourselves in the foot.

'We’re also getting a lot of set-pieces and now it’s about making the most of them to put the ball in the back of the net.

'Blackburn weren’t a side that were terrible by any stretch of the imagination and were probably a bit unlucky with some of their results. But Michael O’Neill has come in and made them more solid, which has helped secure some decent results of late. He’s got a huge amount of experience and has steadied the ship, while also making them an attacking force.'

Pompey could welcome back Conor Shaughnessy, while Keshi Anderson is progressing well.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters