Michael Appleton: Players remain focused

Portsmouth manager Michael Appleton has quashed any suggestions that his players are distracted by their wage dispute as they head into a Championship clash with Birmingham City tonight.

The Pompey team are yet to receive last month's payment following the club's failure to pay a £1.6m tax bill, which resulted in their bank account being frozen.

"You would not have thought it was a problem if you watched the lads in training," the Daily Star quotes Appleton as saying. "You would think everything was normal.

"We can only affect events on the field so we are just focusing on going to Birmingham and giving a good account of ourselves."

Portsmouth currently sit 17th in the Championship table.