Source: Eurosport
Hart unfazed by international break
Portsmouth boss Paul Hart is confident the international break will not curtail the momentum his side have built up in recent weeks.Pompey have pulled three points clear of the drop zone with some decent results and now have nine games to secure their Premier League status.Hart's arrival as caretaker coach, following the dismissal of Tony Adams in February, has coincided with the club's upturn in fortunes.The momentum they have been able to establish will be broken by the resumption of World Cup qualifying duties, but Hart is confident his players will return to Fratton Park focused on the task in hand."It's always about the next game and we cannot afford to take our foot off the pedal," he told The News."It's been sparse. We've done well in games and then had to wait for the next one, but you can look at it the other way as well and think that some players are getting a bit of a rest at the sharp end of the season."We're trying to utilise that time in the best way we can. We're not moaning about it, we're just getting on with it, but all of the clubs are in the same position and we're just trying to do things a little bit better."You hope your internationals come back fit and you hope they've won, so they come back in a better frame of mind."There is not a lot of time for preparation but we've got good pros who can get their heads around it quickly."Hart is also refusing to set his side any targets heading down the final stretch, with the battle to avoid the drop as tight as it has been for many years.He said: "I look at the league table and I looked at it a lot when we were third from bottom. But I try not to get embroiled in fixtures and all that."If you look at points it might be 40, it might be 42."But I think you are putting pressure on yourself."We are taking each game as it comes and don't want to get too bogged down in that."It's in our hands. We're concentrating on what we can do."[LNB]
