‘No charity cases’: Portsmouth boss' classy promise ahead of Preston North End’s key final-day battle with Hull City

The Lilywhites make the trip to play-off hopefuls Bristol City, who also need a win to secure a top six spot.

For Paul Heckingbottom's men, maximum points will seal their Championship survival and avoid a drop to League One. However, should they fail to claim victory at Ashton Gate, their fate will be determined by results elsewhere.

PNE currently sit 20th and a point above the relegation zone with five teams set to battle it out on the final day. Hull City, who currently occupy the final relegation spot in 22nd, make the trip to Portsmouth on Saturday. If the Tigers and 21st-placed Luton, who face West Brom, pick up a point and North End lose, then a return to League One will be on the cards for North End.

However, Pompey boss John Mousinho has given PNE some encouragement ahead of the season-defining finale as they prepare to take on Hull.

The head coach has made it clear he has no plans to make wholesale changes at Fratton Park despite the club already sealing their survival.

Mousinho told our sister paper, The News: ‘We know it’s a really important game for Hull and all the sides down at the bottom.

‘We need to try to maintain the integrity of the league and finish the season with a win, that’s the most important thing for us. We’ve gone four unbeaten, our form is good, and we will attack the game.

‘Whatever side we go with, it will be very, very strong from our perspective. We made a couple of changes against Sheffield Wednesday and I felt they were for really, really good reasons.

‘We’re not going to hand out anything for the sake of it, there'll be no charity cases, we certainly want everybody to be competitive and make sure we pick our best side to win the game - which I think is really important.

‘If we were in the same situation, we’d want other clubs to maintain that competitiveness and integrity. To be honest, I expect every single professional footballer to want to win, not just every football game they play, but everything they do.

‘That is the nature of professional athletes. If you put on a tiddly winks or a darts match, they want to win that as well. I expect us to be exactly the same on Saturday.

‘You saw how dedicated our lads were at Sheffield Wednesday last weekend. If you rewind this time last year when we went up to Lincoln - a really important game for them and the other sides around - and we made changes and still put in a really good performance.’

Portsmouth boss’ encouraging promise ahead of PNE and Hull battle

Pompey currently sit 16th in the table and have already confirmed their survival despite a difficult start to the campaign.

With a win potentially moving them up to as high as 13th, Mousinho is adamant he wants his side to end their first season back in the Championship on a high.

‘Mentally the stress of needing the result has been taken away and I think that’s going to be a positive.

‘Some of the nerves we’ve seen against Derby at home, it was probably a really nervy game in the second half against Watford. There have been times in the past 5-6 matches where we’ve looked a bit of a nervous side going into the second half of games, Blackburn was another when we needed the fans to get us through after going 1-0 up.

‘Hopefully the weight has now been lifted off everybody’s shoulders and we can perform with a bit more freedom. Ultimately, we’re going to try to win the game.’

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