Focus switches to Accrington test
It comes just three days after a 5-1 humbling at Scunthorpe.
But Richie Barker is pleased that the Blues can quickly turn their focus to beating Accrington on Tuesday night.
Pompey will look to recover from their heaviest defeat of the season against James Beattie’s Stanley side.
And Barker does not believe his troops will require much to motivate them after Saturday’s result.
The Blues boss said: “Bouncing back from a defeat is always a test of players’ mentality. We lost to a team at the top of the league and now we have to move on.
“It was a setback, but we were doing okay before the weekend and we’re not getting carried away. Maybe it’s what we needed to bring us back down to earth.
“I shouldn’t have to challenge the players – nobody had to motive me when I was playing.
“I didn’t have to spend a lot of time thinking about the Scunthorpe game because I was already moving on to the next one.
“We could have had a long week where we sat and stewed on it, but I was watching videos of Accrington at 7.45 on Sunday morning instead.”
Accrington were due to visit Fratton Park in January, but the game was postponed because of the terrible weather.
And they will head south in buoyant mood following Saturday’s victory at fellow strugglers Torquay.
Barker said: “They would have seen two matches against sides down the bottom and set a points target – and they’ve got off to a very good start.
“It was a very good result away from home at the weekend and I’m sure they’ve taken confidence from that.
“They’ll have looked at our result and believe that they can come here and win. If we’d have played the original fixture in January we might be in different places.”
Barker believes the Fratton faithful have an important role to play as Pompey look to return to winning ways.
He said: “We need start the game positively and if they see the right things being done then I’m sure they’ll get behind us.
“One of the advantages we get here is having 15,000 fans at our home games, so we need to use that.
“It will be my first game under the floodlights for an evening match here and I’m looking forward to it.”
Pompey are 21/20 favourites with Sky Bet to win on Tuesday. Open an account at www.skybet.com/pompey for great offers and to earn money for the club.