Harry Redknapp has challenged his Portsmouth players to repeat their early season form – and in particularly their opening day form against Aston Villa, when the two teams meet tonight at Villa Park.
Goals from Teddy Sheringham and Patrik Berger secured a 2-1 win for the south coast club in August.
Pompey have yet to record a victory away from Fratton Park, and after a great start to the current campaign, they have since faltered and currently sit two places and one point above the relegation zone.
Redknapp said: "This is a big game for us. We played very well to beat Villa on the opening day but that seems a long time ago now.
"We haven't won away yet and now would be a great time to put that right.
"Villa are one of about 16 teams who I think can still be drawn into the relegation battle but they have a much stronger squad than we do.
"They have got a £9million striker [Juan Pablo Angel] and an England international player [Darius Vassell] up front with Marcus Allback as back-up.
"We sold Peter Crouch to them for £5m and he cannot even get on the bench so that shows how strong their squad is whereas we are struggling to get 16 players out.
"I had three youth-team kids on the bench on Saturday, that's how short on cover we are. When everyone is fit our squad is as good as any outside the top three but we are really struggling."
Redknapp hopes that his team can build on last weekend's FA Cup success, and that it will provide motivation to spur the team on to Barclaycard Premiership survival.
"We didn't want to lose the Blackpool game and winning is a good habit to get into. There is no problem with the confidence in my team, the problem is getting my best players fit."
He added: "Had it not been for the injuries, I'm sure we would have won more matches."
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