The missing threat for Portsmouth against Fleetwood as Ipswich, Plymouth, Sheffield Wednesday & Co keep tabs on Blues’ struggles

And the 57-year-old insisted they must pick up maximum points in games they’re expected to win if they want to achieve promotion this season.

Danny Cowley’s men are now without a win in their last three League One outings after suffering a disappointing 1-1 draw against the Cod Army on Saturday.

Despite dominating the proceedings at Fratton Park, Pompey were unable to break down the resilient Town defences.

Whittingham has pinpointed the lack of balls into the box as they key reason behind the Blues’ failure to find a winning route.

The former striker believes that stems from the lack of overlapping runs from the full-backs, something that has been highlighted by the Fratton faithful on social media.

Speaking to BBC Radio Solent after the draw, ex-Pompey man said: ‘I certainly agree with the ones in terms of full-backs.

‘We’ve seen early on in the season Ogilvie on the left-hand side deliver some great crosses in the box. They didn’t really go wide and put many crosses into the box.

‘You’ve got two centre forwards up front and they’ll feed off the crosses, defences in this league aren’t used to two centre forwards in the box.

‘You need to get the ball wide, you need to get high up the pitch and you need to get balls into the box when you’re playing with two strikers.

‘Danny Cowley sums it up that they’ve come to spoil the game, which they’ve got every right to do, but the hardest thing in the world is getting that ball in the net.

‘Especially in the first half, when they were up and around the final third, there wasn’t enough. There weren't enough balls into the box for me, there weren’t enough people trying to get the balls into the box from those wide areas.

‘Koroma on the left hand side likes to come inside, Dale on the other can go down the outside but there’s no overlapping full-backs.’

Despite an outstanding start to the League One campaign, Pompey’s form has since slowed picking up two points from their previous nine available.

Whittingham believes the Blues’ promotion rivals would’ve expected to see Cowley’s men pick up three points against Fleetwood.

He added: ‘It’s frustrating as Cowley says, especially when you look at the teams above you all winning games that you would expect them to win.

‘They would’ve been looking at Pompey expecting them to win today.’