Portsmouth manager Michael Appleton believes that the current financial crisis at Fratton Park has urged the team to come together on the pitch.

The Championship side are close to going out of business after administrator Trevor Birch admitted that the club are unlikely to receive parachute payments.

"It is not great at the minute, but I think things that have gone on over the last couple of months, it seems to have made the players and staff stronger because it gets to the point that you can't really throw anything else at us," Appleton told Sky Sports News.

"There is a lot of unity together as staff and players and obviously we try and use that and utilise that on the field. It is worrying, of course it is, but it is something we can't affect and as I have said time and time again we can only affect what happens on the field.

"I have got the same hope and feeling as everyone else that eventually something will sort itself out."

This is the second time in as many years that the former Premier League club have entered administration.