Cuthbert demands a repeat performance against Pompey

The hosts go into the game still without a win to their name in the league, but are on the back of an excellent display against Premier League Stoke City in midweek, where they took their opponents all the way to penalties.

Cuthbert appreciates it’s League Two where they will be ultimately judged though, as he said: “We just need to transfer that into the league, the league’s the most important thing for us.

“We’ve got to get our focus on getting our first win and hopefully going on a little run to push up the table.

“I felt that we started the season fairly well with two draws, but we fell off a little bit in the last two games to be honest.

“They haven’t been good enough so it was nice in front of the home fans to give them a good performance going into against one of the better sides on Saturday.

“We know it’s going to be a very tough against Portsmouth, they’re a fantastic side who have recruited well in the summer.

“But I certainly am hoping is that this kind of performance spurs us on and we start very positive on Saturday and get a lift from that performance because those kind of performances show what we can do.”

When asked about the difference, particularly defensively, against the Potters in midweek after Town had looked distinctly average at the back during their trip to Yeovil last weekend, conceding three times, Cuthbert continued: “It’s hard, but what and the manager said after Saturday and any of the players if you spoke to them would say, it wasn’t good enough.

“As an individual you’ve got to look yourself in the mirror and ask if you can do better and we certainly could.

“We need to start winning games, it’s as simple as that, and we will, we will do that, we’ve got too good a squad not to. We’ll pick up wins and we’ll get up that table, we’ll start looking up.”