We won't be the last, warns Grant

Pompey's nine-point deduction has all but relegated the club and Grant will on Friday meet with his squad before deciding how to tackle the remainder of the season, with suggestions they may be ready to field a weakened side in protest. The experienced Israeli coach, 54, admits he is in uncharted territory, but is in no doubt other clubs will suffer the same fate. "It will not be the last time," Grant said. "There are other teams in debt. What will they do with them? "The Premier League need to check their rules about who can buy a football club, because sometimes when you point the finger at someone else, you need to ask what did you did wrong." Pompey now have just 10 points, 14 behind second-from-bottom Hull whom they face at Fratton Park on Saturday. By then, Grant will have gauged the mood in the squad, which still has an FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea at Wembley to look forward to but may lack motivation for what are essentially meaningless matches with the players perhaps contemplating their own futures elsewhere next season. "I will talk with the players about it and we will make a decision and go from there," Grant said. "It is not easy because we still believed that, even with all the difficulties, we could fight against relegation, because Portsmouth did that a few years ago. "Now we need to think about everything. Football needs to be decided on the pitch. "You need to give all of the teams an equal chance, which we did not have in this case. "The decision was taken a long time ago Portsmouth would not stay in the Premier League, for one reason or another. "Do the people who have now been punished deserve it? The fans do not, they did nothing wrong. "They players have always tried to do their best for the team in difficult circumstances." Pompey could do the other sides in the relegation dogfight a huge favour by beating the struggling Tigers, who this week replaced Phil Brown with Iain Dowie. However, Grant added: "We do not have a duty to the other teams, the Premier League has a duty to the other teams. We have a duty to Portsmouth. "We tried everything in the last month to keep what I think the spirit of football is about. I do not see any reason why we should not do that even when we do not have a target. "If we had given up before, people would not have thought that was good for the Premier League. We need to hear what the players think about what we need to do from now on."