Tension in Leicester dressing room: They have sent this devastating message that surprised everyone

Portsmouth remain just a point clear of the Championship relegation zone after battling to a 1-1 draw with Norwich City on Friday, but there is no shortage of belief within the dressing room as the season approaches its decisive stretch.

Regan Poole, a steady presence at the heart of John Mousinho’s side, insists Pompey possess both the character and quality required to preserve their second-tier status.

With seven matches left, the margin for error is slim, yet the defender maintains the club’s destiny remains firmly in their own hands.

The draw against an in-form Norwich outfit offered encouragement, particularly in response to the sobering 6-1 defeat at QPR prior to the international break.

Poole feels that pause in the schedule arrived at precisely the right moment, allowing the squad to reset mentally ahead of the run-in.

He told The News: ‘We’ve got full belief in the group that we’ve got in the building to do what we need to do.

‘We know we should be on whatever points we’re on. We’re not on it but we know we should be higher up in the table than what we are.

‘Performances haven’t reflected points at the end of the day. We’ve dominated many games, the Sheffield United’s at home, the Hull at home defeat, they’re two early ones that come to mind. They should’ve been six points and they’re just the ones that come to the top of my head.

‘We know we haven’t got the points we deserve but we can’t change what’s happened. There’s seven games now and I don’t care how we get the points, we just need to get them.

‘It’s massive (the run-in). We’ve got ourselves in a good position, we’re still outside of the relegation zone and it’s still in our hands.

‘We should be higher up in the table, we’re not but we’re still a point above the relegation zone. There are teams that are in worse positions than us, we’re only focusing on us, we’ve got a job to do and we’ve got the players to do it.’

Looking ahead, Poole added: ‘Yeah, I think so (the international break came at a good time). It was kind of a fresh start for us and we needed to whip whatever happened in the season.

‘Seven games are a lot of games, it’s not like if you lose one and you’re done. We know how many points we need until the end of the season, how we get them, how it looks, I don’t care.

That goal (against Norwich), I don’t care how it looked, it just went in and that’s the main thing.

‘Credit to every single player, we had a job to do and we did it.’