Town travel to Portsmouth on Tuesday aiming to cement second position in the Championship table with the visit to Fratton Park one of their two games in hand on promotion rivals Millwall and Middlesbrough (KO 8pm, Sky Sports Football).

In addition to derby glory, Blues fans also had plenty to celebrate with regards to their team’s Premier League ambitions at the weekend with the Lions having been held 0-0 at West Brom on Friday and Boro losing 1-0 at home to Pompey via a last-gasp goal scored by on-loan Blues forward Conor Chaplin.

That means Town are two points ahead of the South Londoners and three ahead of the Teessiders with two games in hand. The Blues, who have six to play to their rivals’ four, now need 11 points to mathematically confirm promotion but with 10 almost certainly enough due to their superior goal difference.

Tuesday’s match is one of Town’s two matches in hand, the visit to Pompey having been hit by the weather twice earlier in the season.

The game was initially scheduled to be played in early January but was postponed on the morning of the match due to a frozen pitch, much to the Blues’ frustration with the Hampshire side having significant injury issues at that point in the season.

A month later, it was called off again, this time as the Fratton Park surface was waterlogged.

Portsmouth are 21st in the division, one place and one point off the relegation zone following Saturday’s dramatic win at Middlesbrough.

That result ended a winless run of eight games, while they are without a home victory in five, stretching back to a 3-0 success against West Brom at the end of January.

Pompey have the third-poorest home form in the Championship having picked up only 23 points from their 20 matches at Fratton Park, won six, drawn five and lost nine.

Only four teams have scored fewer home goals than Portsmouth’s 21, but just six sides have conceded fewer than their total of 22 on their own turf.

Once again, there’s not too much time between fixtures but manager Kieran McKenna says the focus will swiftly have turned to Tuesday following Saturday’s momentous 2-0 win at Norwich City.

“We said that to the players inside,” he said, speaking after the victory at Carrow Road. “Saturday’s not the time to celebrate or enjoy this one too much because the next one is coming quick and it’s a big one and a tough one.

“We’re going to another tight stadium with a big atmosphere against a team fighting for their lives, generally playing well, playing better probably than their league position and their points, and it’s going to be a big challenge.

“We’ve got to recover well, get our energy right and make sure we’re ready to go on Tuesday.”

Two years ago, Town pulled off a famous 3-2 victory over fellow promotion challengers Southampton with the celebrations following Jeremy Sarmiento’s late, late winner similar to Saturday’s, but then put in a very flat display in their next game, coincidentally that season’s visit to Norwich City.

Asked whether any lessons might be learnt from then, McKenna said: “For me, it doesn’t matter whether it’s April whatever it is now or September, how we operate, we genuinely do just focus on ourselves and the next game. That’s all the chat will be in the group in the next 48 hours.

“You know in this division, it’s about your consistency and your ability to go again and again and it’s never more so on a run like this away from home on Saturday and Tuesday with the run of away games that we have.

“The positive for me is that that’s how we operate and that’s how we talk all the time. Of course, players enjoyed it on the pitch after and in the dressing room, but by the time they come out of that shower it will be about recovery, eating the right things, sleeping as much as possible and training and preparing well for Tuesday night. That doesn’t change for us now.”

Reflecting on the two postponements at Portsmouth, having previously admitted the first was a particular frustration, McKenna added: “I think I’ve already said that it was, there’s no point in going over it now. It is what it is. It was at the time.

“We have the game now, it’s ahead of us and I’m pretty sure from the weather forecast we’re going to be good, so we’re ready to take it on.

“They’re a team that we respect and it’s a stadium that we respect because it’s a tough place to go and win on a Tuesday night, but it would be a brilliant place to do it, so that’s what we’re going to try and do.”

McKenna believes Pompey are a better side than their league position and results indicate.

“I think across the season they’ve generally played really well,” he said. “If you look at the statistics, they’re a lot better than their league position would suggest.

“They’re capable of playing some really good football. You’ll see that in a lot of their games they have a lot of possession, a lot of shots but not won, and maybe in a couple of recent games they’ve been a bit more direct and they’ve got some big targets, so they can go direct and make it that type of game as well.

“Going away from home, the league’s always tough, especially this time of the season when a team’s fighting for something, so we’re going to have to stand up to everything that goes our way and try and find a way to put the best of ourselves in the game as well.”

Having readied themselves for the game twice, the Blues should be well prepared for the match finally getting played.

“We’ll go back through the first and second lot of videos and see what we can get,” McKenna said. “But they’ve had a lot of changes over the course of the year, so you have to start again, so I’m not sure it’s going to save us too much time.

“At least we know the way to the elevators in the hotel! But in terms of the game, I’m not sure we’re going to save any more time, I still think it’s going to be a long Sunday.”

The Blues boss says winger Wes Burns might be ready to return having been out since the Sheffield Wednesday game with a calf issue.

“We don’t know yet, it’s day by day,” he said. “It’s not a major setback, but he had a bit of a setback in the build-up to Birmingham, so we’ll have to assess him over the weekend and on Monday.”

Right-back Ashley Young is back with the group after his hip issue and McKenna says the 40-year-old would be available should he be needed in the final few weeks of the season.

“He’s training well, still modifying his training a little bit,” the Northern Irishman added. “He’s there and if we need him to step up, I’m pretty sure he’ll put his hand up and he’ll be ready to play.

“The other boys are playing well, the backline is in a good spot, so we don’t need to force anything at the moment, but he’s really contributing in the group and if we need him to step up in this last run-in, I’m certain that he will do.”

McKenna confirmed that midfielder Jens Cajuste was left out of the squad at Norwich simply due to the number of players who were available and his substitute preferences.

“It was difficult,” McKenna admitted, “because of the options we had on the bench we felt like we had the midfield pretty well covered and we wanted to be stocked with forwards in case we needed a goal, which is what we like to do, especially when you get to the end of the season and you want to have your weapons on the pitch.

“I spoke about Jens plenty the other day and he was outstanding again today with the group here, so he’ll be training well on Monday again, I’m sure, and I’m pretty sure with the way the fixtures are coming, we’re going to need everyone to step up.

“You look at it with Ben Johnson, a prime example for all the other boys there, the way he’s stepped up now and they’re ready to do the same.”

The Team

McKenna will undoubtedly make changes to his side for the visit to Fratton Park, but Christian Walton will keep his place in goal following his 14th clean sheet in 30 Championship starts this season on what was his 300th senior appearance.

Darnell Furlong, skipper Dara O’Shea, Jacob Greaves and Leif Davis look set to continue as the backline after an outstanding display at Carrow Road.

Azor Matusiwa will be in his usual central midfield role with Dan Neil appearing likely to come in alongside the Dutchman, the on-loan Sunderland man having come off the bench at Norwich.

Kasey McAteer will probably come in on the right, Jack Clarke on the left and the Canaries’ enemy number one Marcelino Nunez starting as the number 10. Ivan Azon seems likely to come in for George Hirst as the number nine.

The Opposition

On-loan Blues forward Chaplin is ineligible against his parent side, while defender Connor Ogilvie is suspended following a red card in the Easter Monday 2-2 draw at home to Oxford United.

Ebou Adams (knee), Aji Alese (quad), Mark Kosznovszky (knee), Josh Murphy (foot), Zak Swanson (knee) and Franco Umeh (hamstring) all unavailable for manager John Mousinho’s side.

Better news for Pompey was that striker Thomas Waddingham (quad) was back on the bench at the Riverside, while midfielder Josh Knight (back) is also close to a return.

History

Historically, the Blues have won 22 games against Portsmouth (21 in the league), 14 have been draws (13) and Pompey have won 17 (12).

Despite McKenna feeling Fratton Park is a tough away day, Town are unbeaten on their two most recent visits, a draw last time a game got played under the current Blues boss and a 4-0 win under one-time Pompey boss Paul Cook. Prior to that, however, Town had lost three in a row in all competitions.

The teams met at Portman Road in September when goals from Philogene and Hirst saw Town to a comfortable 2-1 victory.

Philogene got the Blues up and running with his fourth goal in two games in the 10th minute and Hirst all but sealed the win four minutes prior to half-time with his third of the season.

Sub Ivan Azon hit the post late on before Pack pulled one back for Pompey in injury time, but Town were not to be denied their first back-to-back league wins since the end of the 2023/24 promotion season.

The teams last met at Fratton Park in League One in December 2022 when Chaplin netted three minutes from time for the Blues against his hometown club as Town came from behind twice to draw 2-2.

Pack’s fourth-minute free-kick gave Pompey the lead, but Cameron Burgess’s second goal of the season levelled seven minutes later.

In the second half, Bishop put the home side back in front very much against the run of play on the hour, before Chaplin denied his local side with whom he is now on loan the win with a rebound from close range.

Familiar Faces

Town striker Hirst spent the 2021/22 season on loan at Fratton Park, scoring 15 goals in 32 starts and 14 games from the bench.

Blues forward Chaplin joined Pompey as a six-year-old and progressed through their youth ranks into the first team before leaving to join Coventry in January 2019.

He returned to Fratton Park on loan on deadline day in the summer and since then has made 25 starts and nine sub appearances, scoring twice.

Andre Dozzell, the son of Blues legend Jason, came through the academy ranks at Portman Road and went on to make 78 starts and 15 sub appearances, scoring three goals, before departing for QPR in Paul Cook’s 2021 Demolition Man summer. He joined Pompey in the summer of 2024.

Officials

Tuesday’s referee is Farai Hallam, his assistants Nigel Lugg and Hugh Gilroy, and the fourth official Samuel Allison.

Surrey-based Hallam was a professional footballer for four years and is now in his fourth season as an EFL referee, taking charge of his first Championship games last term.

From 2017 until 2021, he worked as the FA’s senior referee officer and then national referee manager.

Hallam, who has shown 90 yellow cards and no red in 27 games so far this season, has refereed two previous Town matches, the 3-0 home defeat to Charlton in October, in which he booked three Addicks and no Town players.

And the 5-0 hammering of Sheffield United the previous month in which he again only yellow-carded visiting players, on that occasion two Blades.

Squad From

Walton, Palmer, Button, Furlong, Davis, Johnson, O’Shea (c), Kipre, Greaves, Baggott, Matusiwa, Cajuste, Neil, Taylor, Clarke, Philogene, Nunez, Walle Egeli, McAteer, Burns, Mehmeti, Akpom, Hirst, Azon.

Photo: TWTD