With no fully-fit left-backs available, John Mousinho was forced into a change of shape for Pompey’s midweek League One contest with Burton at Fratton Park.
But moving to three at the back did not appear to faze the hosts, who produced a performance against Burton that was more dominant than their 2-1 victory suggests.
Sean Raggett believes that the Blues have all the attributes required to deal with switches in systems and personnel.
He just felt that after Kusini Yengi’s brace, they could have forged further ahead to avoid the nervy finale created by John Brayford’s reply.
The defender said: “It probably could have been a bit more comfortable towards the end if we’d put some more of our chances away.
“We were in control, but if you let sides back into it then all it takes is another set-piece, so we needed to defend it better.
“For 70-odd minutes of that game, though, I thought we were excellent and deserved the win – at this stage of the season, that’s the most important thing.
"I think you could see that everyone was comfortable with the shape and some people might not have realised that we play that way in possession a lot anyway."
“We just had to keep doing what we’d been doing after the break – controlling the game and moving the ball with tempo.
“That was causing Burton a lot of problems and so we came out for the second half and tried to continue doing that.
“I think you could see that everyone was comfortable with the shape and some people might not have realised that we play that way in possession a lot of the time anyway.
“The team has changed numerous times this season because of injuries, but there’s a lot of quality in this squad, whoever is playing.”
With all but a small section of the Milton End occupied by home fans, Raggett was impressed by another raucous Fratton atmosphere.
He said: “I can’t really remember what happened, but there was a stop in play towards the end of the game and the place just erupted.
“This is my fifth season, so I’m used to things like that now because I’ve heard it regularly. They were top quality as usual.”
