Stevens: Pompey have no excuses against Shrimps
Enda Stevens challenged his Pompey team-mates: Let's not blow this opportunity.
The Blues entertain Morecambe at Fratton Park tonight – three days after a crucial 3-0 win at promotion rivals Carlisle.
Victory saw Paul Cook’s side move up to fourth in the League Two table.
They also closed the gap on the third-placed Cumbrians to three points, with Pompey having a game in hand.
Under Cook’s reign, the Blues have often been found guilty of failing to capitalise on important away results.
Last term, impressive wins at Bristol Rovers and Accrington were immediately followed by home defeats to Exeter and Newport respectively.
Meanwhile, this season, Pompey failed to follow up sterling performances at Plymouth and Luton when next in action, losing against Notts County and Stevenage.
Stevens admitted the Blues had learnt their lessons from those setbacks. And the left-back insisted there can be ‘no excuses’ for tonight’s visit of the Shrimps.
‘We’ve been in this situation before,’ he said.
‘Last year we never kicked on and capitalised on results, so hopefully tonight we can go into that game professionally, ready to learn from last year.
‘Morecambe will be a tough game, though, and we won’t take anything for granted.
‘They’ll come here well-prepared, they’re a good team who beat us up at their place so we’ve got to respect them.
‘But we didn’t capitalise last season and that is in the back of our heads.
‘We’ll prepare right, get our heads down and then we’ll have no excuses tonight.’
Stevens added: ‘The league isn’t decided yet and we’ve still got a lot of games to go.
‘There will be a lot of twists and turns along the way, but we’ve got to make sure we’re not part of that.’
– MARK McMAHON