Portsmouth suffered a 2-0 defeat to Wycombe Wanderers at the weekend as the South Coast side continue to lose a grip on the play-off places.
With Sunday's defeat, Danny Cowley's side is now five games without a win in the league and have dropped out of the top six, despite spending the first few months of the season there.
Pompey are in eighth place with 29 points, two behind sixth-place Peterborough United and 13 behind second-place Ipswich Town.
Despite going five games without a win, Portsmouth's defeat on Sunday was only their third in the league this season, and as the football season enters the Christmas period, Cowley has labelled this time of the month "pivotal" for his team.
The South Coast side faces five games in all competitions in that period, and with the current winless run in the league, it is an opportunity for his team to start picking up some positive results.
Portsmouth will now be preparing to face Accrington Stanley this weekend before playing League Two side Stevenage in the EFL Trophy, and Cowley knows he and his side can't afford to dwell on the defeat to Wycombe.
Cowley told Sky Sports, via Hampshire Live: “I think it's always a pivotal time of the year because the games come thick and fast, and we've had a disappointment today.
“It is our first loss in 10 so we have to take the learning from it as always and I think always for us, when we play poorly, to own the performance and I think we have to do that individually and collectively.
"We move forward, we now have a slightly shorter week before we go to Accrington on Saturday."
The Verdict
Despite the winless run, it is important to remember that Portsmouth have only suffered three defeats in the league this season, and results like Sunday are bound to happen with a young team that is still not the finished article.
The Christmas period is always an important part of the football schedule, and Cowley will be looking to get his team back into shape, and with games coming thick and fast in this month, he will be aware that the table position can change very quickly.
This is Portsmouth’s first defeat in 10 games, so this is an opportunity for Cowley and co. to look at the game, assess what went wrong, and hopefully help his team learn from their mistakes.