Pompey travel to The Hive to take on Barnet tomorrow looking for their third straight league win.
Team News
New signing Stanley Abroah is unavailable due to lack of match fitness but Gareth Evans should be available despite going off injured against Blackpool on Tuesday. Curtis Main is, of course, still injured.
Bees winger Simeon Akinola is available for selection after serving a three-match ban but Shaun Batt, Michael Gash and Jamie Stevens are amongst multiple players who are injured for the hosts.
The Match
Tuesday's win over Blackpool reinvigorated Pompey fans and had them believing that their team has a real shout at automatic promotion once again. They will also hold out hope of a third win on the spin given Barnet's poor home record of just four wins in all competitions this season.
However, it will be difficult to predict what kind of approach Barnet will take to this game given that co-manager Henry Newman left the club during the week and was replaced by Kevin Nugent. Barnet aren't quite the stoic, irritating team they were under Martin Allen's leadership, though.
Pompey's approach should be much more predictable given that Paul Cook is once again unlikely to change his team after Tuesday's excellent performance. Whether they can reproduce that showing on the road is another question baring in mind that Pompey have only taken a single point from their last three (albeit difficult) away fixtures.
By pure coincidence, tomorrow's fixture is the 31st of Portsmouth's season and that was exactly the same as last season when a terrible game ended in a 1-0 defeat as Pompey fans seriously questioned their side's promotion credentials.
That can't happen again and with the best defence in the division coupled with some potent attacking players, it's unlikely that such a woeful performance will be repeated.
There are some interesting fixtures in League Two tomorrow with Doncaster playing Luton and Wycombe hosting Carlisle. Three points for Pompey would certainly see them make some ground on their promotion rivals and pull away from others.
Let's just hope history doesn't repeat itself tomorrow and the Bees get stung in their own Hive.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Barnet
GK: Josh VICKERS
RB: Charlie CLOUGH
CB: Ricardo SANTOS
CB: Michael NELSON
LB: Elliot JOHNSON
RM: Tom CHAMPION
CM: Curtis WESTON
CM: Reuben BOVAN
CM: Mauro VILHETE
LM: Simeon AKINOLA
CF: John AKINDE
Pompey
GK: David FORDE
RB: Gareth EVANS
CB: Christian BURGESS
CB: Matt CLARKE
LB: Enda STEVENS
DM: Michael DOYLE
DM: Amine LINGANZI
RM: Jamal LOWE
AM: Gary ROBERTS
LM: Kyle BENNETT
CF: Eoin DOYLE
Last Time: Barnet 1 Portsmouth 0 (League Two - 23/02/2016)
A soft John Akinde penalty was enough to separate two poor sides in an absolutely dire game of football on a freezing cold Tuesday night in North London.
My Prediction
Three wins in a row seems too good to be true despite Barnet's poor home record but Pompey always seem to let you down when you're at your most optimistic.
Barnet 1 Portsmouth 1