Danny Cowley makes Portsmouth promotion claim ahead of Morecambe showdown | OneFootball

Portsmouth head coach Danny Cowley has insisted that the club did not set out a top-two finish in League One as a realistic target for the 2022/23 campaign.

Pompey made an incredibly positive start to the season as they accumulated 21 points from their opening nine league games.

Portsmouth’s nine game unbeaten run was ended by Ipswich Town in October as they suffered a 3-2 defeat at Portman Road.

Since this fixture, Pompey have only managed to win one of their last five league games and thus have lost ground on Ipswich and league leaders Plymouth Argyle.

Currently 14 points adrift of Plymouth and 10 points behind the Tractor Boys, Portsmouth face an uphill battle to remain to close this particular gap.

However, Pompey do have two games in hand over these sides and will be determined to get back to winning ways on Saturday when they head to the Mazuma Stadium to face Morecambe.

Speaking to The News, the Pompey boss said: “I’m not getting too caught up with the league table.

“I didn’t when we were top so I won’t now we’re fifth.

“I never really felt that we were competing (for the top two).

“I know where we are, I live it every single minute of every single day.

“Out of everyone I would probably have the best feeling of where we’re at as a group and what we’re capable of

“We’re a good team – we’re going to be fine.”

Can you score 23/23 on this quiz about Portsmouth FC in the 2000s?

1 of 23

What division were Portsmouth residing in at the start of 2000?

Premier League First Division (2nd tier) Second Division (3rd tier) Third Division (4th tier)

The Verdict

This is a fair assessment by Cowley as Portsmouth were certainly not considered to be a major contender for automatic promotion ahead of the current campaign.

Whereas there is still a chance that Pompey could launch a push for a top-two finish in the coming months, their main target will be to secure a place in the play-offs at the end of the season.

In order to achieve this particular goal, Portsmouth will need to improve their consistency in the third-tier as they have dropped too many points in recent times.

By securing victory over Morecambe this weekend, Pompey may be able to use the confidence gained from this result to push on in the third-tier with Cowley at the helm.