Pompey face relegation rivals Blackburn Rovers in a crucial game at the bottom of the Championship table this weekend.

Michael O’Neill has stressed his new Blackburn Rovers squad are currently ‘not strong’ enough as they vie to maintain their Championship status.

And the head coach has also shared his concerns over his side’s fitness ahead of this weekend’s hugely-important showdown with Pompey.

Following successive defeats to Wrexham and Hull City over the past week, John Mousinho’s men turn their attention to this weekend’s crucial contest against one of their relegation rivals.

The Blues face a Rovers outfit who sit just just points above the bottom three, with a win for either side ensuring a step closer to survival.

The honeymoon period is, though, well-and-truly over for O’Neill at Ewood Park, who despite winning his opening two matches in charges, has since fallen to back-to-back Championship defeats.

Following a frustrating 2-1 loss against Bristol City last Tuesday, Rovers suffered a second-half collapse against Derby County on Saturday, despite taking the lead at Pride Park. The rampant Rams put Blackburn to the sword after the break, with John Eustace’s outfit ensuring a 3-1 triumph over his former side.

Following Rovers’ dismal display O’Neill, who has also kept his position with the Northern Ireland national team, delivered a scathing assessment of his squad, which he is hoping will still be good enough to avoid relegation this term.

Blackburn boss’ honest squad assessment ahead of Pompey

‘The squad is not strong and we don’t have depth in our squad’, O’Neill told the Lancashire Telegraph.

‘At times, you know, the team that finishes the game is not as strong as the team that starts the game. That’s with the injuries that we have and the players that we have missing, that’s a consequence.

‘We have players coming in who haven’t played for a while and we have to manage them through the game as well. So that’s a challenge.

‘We need to develop durability, both individually and collectively. I think as a team, we need to be more durable and we weren’t able to do that in the second half.

‘We played very well in the first half, I thought.

‘Dealt with, the long balls and picked up a lot of second balls and we played some really good football as well in the first half. We could have been better in the final third with some of the opportunities and possession that we had.

‘But overall, we looked comfortable, I felt, in the first half. We got caught a couple of times, just counter-attacks, which may be off our own free kicks, which we had to be mindful of.’

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Huge consequences at the bottom of the Championship

Pompey make the long-trip north this Saturday lunchtime, with the showdown expected to have huge repercussions at the foot of the Championship.

Mousinho’s troops sit five points clear of the bottom three following their defeat to Hull last time out, with a win at Blackburn potentially lifting the Blues’ eight clear of the relegation zone.

Rovers, meanwhile, have won just two of their previous seven matches in Lancashire and are four points above 22nd-placed Leicester City.

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