Pompey duo could be back fit as 'hurt' Jackett targets return to form against 'fluid' Cobblers

Portsmouth manager Kenny Jackett says his side are 'hurting' from recent results and will be desperate to bounce back to winning ways when they take on the Cobblers at the PTS this weekend.

Pompey's promotion charge has stuttered during the last few weeks having picked up just one win from five matches, dropping them out of the top two and down to fifth in Sky Bet League One.

They were beaten by Doncaster last time out and also suffered defeat to Town's relegation rivals Bristol Rovers not so long ago.

“Games are always vital, but particularly on the run we’re on where we’ve been so spasmodic in picking up points," said Jackett. “If you want to be up at the top and competing with those sides, then you need to be winning games on a regular basis.

“We are capable of putting that run together and have to find the right equation in ourselves to close that gap. We’re hurting at the moment and the loss at Doncaster on Tuesday was a tough one to take. We weren’t great, but it was still close and I thought we’d got a point at the end.

“There are fine margins and we do have to find some form going forwards. We want to create and score goals. We need to keep that in mind and work hard to solve that problem, while keeping our morale and attitude.

“The players are determined to do well and certainly don’t enjoy dropping points. We’re not far away, but have to be honest and say we haven’t got it right of late.”

On facing Jon Brady's Cobblers, Jackett added: “We’ve analysed them and they’ve been quite fluid in terms of the systems played and had an excellent result on Tuesday.

“They’ll obviously be looking to back that up, but we have to concentrate on ourselves and make sure get our performance right.”

Pompey could be boosted by the return from injury of right-back James Bolton and former Cobblers midfielder Michael Jacobs.

Jackett continued: “Both of them will have fitness tests. They’re excellent pros and we hope they can be available for this run of games ahead.”