Defender on Pompey's approach at Newport
Paul Cook has championed a passing philosophy ever since he arrived at Pompey in the summer of 2015.
But Enda Stevens admits that a different approach might be needed at Rodney Parade on Boxing Day.
The Blues visit a Newport side who are scrapping for League Two survival and play on a pitch that has come in for plenty of criticism.
And Stevens feels that they might need to be artisans rather than artists in order to win the game.
The left-back said: “We’ve looked at clips of them and seen that the pitch isn’t in the best condition.
“But we have to go there with the focus of keeping our good away form going by picking up all three points.
“We’ll probably look to be more direct than usual. It might not be too pretty, but we have to make sure it’s effective.
“We have to be able to adapt to different conditions and the way that sides set up. That’s something we’ve been working on in training.
“Our away record was very good last season as well, but our home record is obviously not as good as we want it to be and hopefully we can change that.”
Pompey play four games in 10 days over the festive period, but Stevens is not worried about the hectic schedule.
He said: “It’s a good period for us because there are so many games and there’s no hanging about. I’ve never had a Christmas Day off, but I don’t mind that.
“We’re kept busy and it’s a great opportunity to put a run of positive results together to close the gap on the sides above us.”