by Neil Weld
Jason Pearce believes Pompey’s spirit can see them survive in the Championship.
The Blues – docked 10 points last week for entering administration – slid into the bottom three on Saturday after being beaten 2-0 at Barnsley.
Jim O’Brien and Matt Done scored late goals at Oakwell after Dave Kitson had been dismissed for two bookable offences just before half-time.
But Pearce – who wore the captain’s armband in the absence of the injured Liam Lawrence – says there is still plenty of time to climb out of trouble.
Pompey are three points behind 21st-placed Nottingham Forest, who leapfrogged the Blues at the weekend thanks to a victory over Coventry – another side in the relegation places.
But there are still 15 matches remaining for the Blues to save their Championship status – and nine of those are at Fratton Park.
Pearce said: “The lads showed great fighting spirit against Barnsley, which is what you need when you’re in a relegation battle.
“It looked like it was going to finish 0-0. Barnsley didn’t look like they were going to score and we didn’t look like we were going to score.
“But the first team to score was always going to win the game and they were lucky enough to get it.
“We can take a lot of positives from the game, though, and hopefully can take that spirit into the remaining 15 games of the season and get ourselves out of trouble.
“We’re obviously really disappointed to get nothing out of the game, but we have to stick together because we’ve got 15 cup finals.
“We’ve got to start putting things right. We all know we’ve got that fighting spirit in us, so hopefully we can get ourselves out of trouble.
“The fans have magnificent and we have to thank them for that – now we have to keep on going.”