Clear Championship challenge laid down for powerful Portsmouth as season dawns at Oxford United

Pompey have been tasked with avoiding a repeat of last season’s early Championship struggles as they enter the season with momentum.

But defender Jordan Williams is adamant John Mousinho’s men are better placed to hit the ground running this term, as the campaign opens at Oxford United this weekend.

Pompey 119 days and 12 games unbeaten across Championship and pre-season

The Blues start their second term at the level with a trip up the A34 to the Kassam Stadium, as their head coach makes another return to former club.

Pompey go into the opener off the back of a promising pre-season in which they’ve remained unbeaten, winning six of their seven warm-up games with a draw against Hawks the other result.

That makes it 12 games unbeaten when paired with the two wins and three draws at the end of last term, with the run spanning a period of 119 days - though that, of course, includes the summer break.

The clear task for Williams, however, is to avoid a repeat of the struggles this time last season, when an excellent opening-day 3-3 draw at Leeds United was the pre-cursor for 10 winless games as Pompey toiled.

The defender is clear, however, he feels the Blues are better placed to avoid a similar start this time around with the core of Mousinho’s squad now Championship hardened.

Williams said: ‘This season I want to start better and we need to start better as a team.

‘We don’t want to be in a position like last time when we were playing catch-up.

‘We need to get points on the board early and carry on as we finished.

‘We’re looking up.

‘We’re not setting targets, but this year we have a core group who are ready compared to last year when we had a lot of broken pieces.

‘We were trying to put square pegs in round holes, but as we got people fit we started to do well and pick up points.

‘So it’s just about trying to keep the home form and build on the away form, that has to be the next stage for us.

‘The home form was up there with the best after those first 10 games. That’s there and that is the foundation we need to build on.’

Jordan Williams to vie with Terry Devlin and Zak Swanson for Pompey role

Williams goes into the news campaign with a strong pre-season under his belt, as he aims to avoid a repeat of the injury issues which afflicted his first Pompey term after joining from Barnsley.

Hip and hamstring problems limited the right-back’s impact, but he now looks favourite to take a starting spot against Gary Rowett’s side this weekend.

Zak Swanson and Terry Devlin will provide some very sturdy competition for Williams, with Swanson having his best season at Fratton Park last term when it came to appearances.

Devlin, meanwhile, has shown himself to be a versatile option and has been utilised centrally in pre-season, but Mousinho has previously stated he’s being primarily considered for right-back selection.

Williams added: ‘Every position in the team is up for grabs and we have a lot of good players in every position.

‘It’s down to training and the friendlies, we’ve had a good chance to stamp our markers down.

‘We’ve all got our different abilities and attributes, that’s why you have different types of players in each position. It’s for different scenarios in different games.’