Whittingham keen to keep faith in winning system

The joint caretaker manager has the seen the combination of Luke Varney and Dave Kitson fire the club to two wins in their past three outings.

It would be a brave selection to send the Blues out unchanged from last weekend’s 3-1 success over Doncaster Rovers as Pompey go looking for a first win on the road of the campaign.

But Whittingham and Stuart Gray may be tempted to throw a bit more caution to the wind after seeing their methods pay off with consecutive home victories.

Whittingham said: ‘We do look at each game and we changed the personnel slightly at Ipswich.

‘Now we’re looking at Derby and we will wait and see but I shouldn’t think we will drastically move things around because it’s been going well.

‘If we want to climb the table, we have to get some results away from home and that will only come with good performances.

‘The majority of times – with the exception of Ipswich – if you perform well, you will get something out of the game.’

With Pompey in decent form and the men in charge, Whittingham and Gray, not under intense pressure for results, there is an opportunity to release the shackles rather more than at other times this season.

But Whittingham believes the recent performances are down to an increase in confidence levels, rather than freedom.

He said: ‘The biggest thing in football is confidence and the players have got some after their past three performances.

‘Winning two out of three and putting in a good performance in Ipswich gives everyone confidence.

‘So I wouldn’t say it’s freedom but more about confidence and they are more positive in their play.

‘We want to keep that going at Derby but we know it will be a difficult test for us.’