by Johnny Moore
Michael Appleton has taken heart from Pompey’s performances against the Championship high-flyers.
The Blues held then league leaders Southampton to a 1-1 draw at Fratton Park before Christmas.
And this month it took a penalty for current table toppers West Ham to beat 10-man Pompey, before a 92nd-minute winner sealed victory for third-placed Cardiff last Saturday.
Appleton believes the performances in those three matches means there is plenty of cause for optimism ahead of Saturday’s trip to Peterborough.
“The Southampton game had a bit of a different feel given the significance of the occasion,” said the Blues boss. “Obviously when they came to Fratton Park they were flying high, full of confidence and deserved to be top of the table.
“It was a difficult match but the lads competed well and got a point from a game where there was really nothing to choose between the sides.
“Up until the sending off against West Ham, I genuinely thought we were going to win the game. I think if we’d had 11 on the pitch and scored one, then we would have gone on to get more.
“Then at Cardiff it was a bit of a case of putting square pegs in round holes with only 13 senior pros to call on.
“It was about juggling the team – even during the game. It was a difficult one for everybody, but the lads stuck at it.
“In my opinion, Cardiff are the best footballing side we’ve met in the division and theirs was a level of performance that I would like to take Pompey to eventually.
“But the satisfaction for me was that the lads kept going to take them right up to the 92nd minute. I think that stands us in good stead for the games coming up.”
Pompey have some tough fixtures on the horizon with three of their next four games coming against sides in the Championship top seven.
After Saturday’s trip to Peterborough the Blues have three games in eight days, hosting Hull before visits to Birmingham and Blackpool.
But Appleton believes there is not too much separating most of the sides in the division.
He said: “Take out the top few in the Championship and there is a likeness about all those below. Teams are quite capable of winning five on the trot and then having a five-game losing sequence.
“The best example of that was earlier in the season when Burnley went to Hull and were 2-0 down with around 10 minutes to go, but ran out 3-2 winners.
“Had they lost that afternoon they would have been in the bottom three, but instead they went on a run – halted by us in December – and are now just a few points off the play-off spots.”