Appleton puts pressure on City

Michael Appleton feels the relegation scrap is "Bristol City's to lose" despite Portsmouth sealing a vital 2-1 win over Crystal Palace.

With Bristol City being held 1-1 by West Ham, Pompey are now five points behind the Robins with two games remaining for both sides. They must win at home to Derby on Saturday and hope City fail to beat Barnsley at Ashton Gate. But Appleton says his side go into the penultimate weekend of the season with no pressure on their shoulders. "All the pressure is on Bristol City as far as we're concerned," Appleton said. "There's no pressure on us. It's for them to throw away rather than us to achieve it. "We knew if we'd won the game and they'd beaten West Ham, we would have been down anyway. We can't control their results. We can just control our results. "We'll try and win again on Saturday and we'll give it everything we've got because we've got pride and we've got dignity. If the worst-case scenario does happen, hopefully we can do it with a little bit about us."