Lasse Sorensen paid respect to the champions elect but insisted his Imps side are confident they can get a positive result against Portsmouth.
If City succeed in their task of securing all three points in their final game of the regular season then they will ensure they finish in the top six.
Sorensen said: “Portsmouth are champions, and they wouldn’t be champions as early as they are if they weren’t a really good team throughout the whole season.
“We have been really good the last few months but they have matched us, and that shows how good they are. We know it’s going to be a tough game but as we said early on in the season, it doesn’t matter who we are playing, if we turn up and do well we can win against anybody.
“We believe in ourselves, we always have. We’ve got good momentum which we’ve had for a while and in football that’s so important.
“We go on the pitch and instead of fearing opponents we have a mind-set that we want to win, and that’s the mentality we need to have.”
It’s been a season full of ups and downs for City, and Sorensen is looking forward to hopefully ending the campaign on a high.
He added: “No team can go through a season where everything is nice and easy, there’s always bumps along the way, with good times and less good times, but that’s why we like football.
“Hopefully it won’t be our last game, but obviously in the regular season it is, so we’re looking forward to it. We’ll take it as any other game - it’s been a long season but an enjoyable one.”