Jason Pearce says Charlton have “three cups finals” left to stay in the play-off places.

The Addicks captain scored his first goal in a year to help his side to a vital 2-0 win over Shrewsbury on Tuesday evening. It lifted them up to fifth with three games remaining.

Up next is Pearce’s former club Portsmouth, who are battling Charlton for a top-six finish. The 30-year-old defender spent the 2011/12 season at Fratton Park.

He said: “We’ve done okay against the teams who are in and around us in the play-offs so we've got them [Pompey and Blackburn] to play and Rochdale, who are fighting for their lives.

“We have three cup finals to try to get into the play-offs and then anything can happen.

“I said to the boys and so did Bow [Lee Bowyer], ‘we have to keep focused, we can’t drop these levels like we have in the previous couple of games’.

“We’ve got that focus now and Portsmouth, going to Fratton Park will be a big one for me, going back there, but it’s a massive club and we need to put on a performance.”

Pearce has struck up a solid partnership with Patrick Bauer at the back, which has seen Charlton keep four clean sheets in their last eight games.

The pair were able to contain third-placed Shrewsbury, who failed to register a shot on target at home.

Pearce added: “I think myself and Pat have a good partnership so we want to stay together if we can.

“But there’s Harry [Lennon] and Naby [Sarr] to come in and they’re very good players. The right-back and left-back spots have changed, but they’re very good players too.

“I think Bow wants to change it because there have been so many games.”

Pearce, who won promotion to the Championship with Wigan in 2016, believes Charlton can handle the pressure of a play-off race.

He said: “Yeah, I think so. We've got it in us as players, we've just got to do it on a more consistent basis.

“We've shown it against Shrewsbury and we’ve got to keep on doing it.

“It’s about standards now. When you win a game, you can’t get too carried away, and we've got to keep our feet on the floor and we've got to do things right in training.”

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