Pompey make the short jaunt to Bournemouth tomorrow evening looking to cause an upset by knocking their Championship opponents out of the Capital One Cup.
Team News
Guy Whittingham will be contemplating changes after the 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Oxford on Saturday. Phil Smith, Bondz N'Gala, Danny East, Tom Craddock and Romain Padovani may come into the side but Johnny Ertl is banned after his red card.
Eddie Howe has already admitted he'll make changes to his team that beat Charlton last weekend. Tommy Elphick and Ian Harte look set to take part in defence whilst Andrew Surman is one of a few players pushing for a start.
The Match
After the harsh introduction to League Two things don't get any easier as Bournemouth should be even tougher opposition regardless of the players Eddie Howe selects.
It wasn't so long ago that Pompey fans would have thought a game against the Cherries would have been a formality but it'll take a brave man to bet on Portsmouth being in the draw for round two after tomorrow evening.
The only real hope we fans have got is that every single Pompey player perform to their absolute limits and do not make any of the many mistakes they made against Oxford, especially at the back. If Bournemoth take a lax approach then there is a small chance that Whittingham's men could snatch a heroic 1-0 win as a response to Saturday's debacle.
However, it is far more likely that the quality of the opposition will be too much for a rusty Pompey backline to handle and this may well be another hiding.
So, be prepared to repeat the old "concentrate on the league" cliché come Wednesday morning.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Bournemouth
GK: Darryl FLAHAVAN
RB: Simon FRANCIS
CB: Tommy ELPHICK
CB: Steve COOK
LB: Ian HARTE
RM: Ryan FRASER
CM: Eunan O'KANE
CM: Harry ARTER
LM: Andrew SURMAN
CF: Lewis GRABBAN
CF: Wes THOMAS
Pompey
GK: Phil SMITH
RB: Danny EAST
CB: Joe DEVERA
CB: Sonny BRADLEY
LB: Dan BUTLER
RM: Jed WALLACE
CM: Simon FERRY
CM: Romain PADOVANI
LM: Ricky HOLMES
CF: Patrick AGYEMANG
CF: Tom CRADDOCK
Last Time: AFC Bournemouth 2 Portsmouth 0 (League One - 09/02/2013)
A spirited Pompey held out in the first half but some slack defending allowed Lewis Grabban and Marc Pugh to score two easy goals in the second half to condemn the Blues to yet another defeat.
My Prediction
As much as I'd like to think that the players will atone for their errors on Saturday I can only see another defeat and it may well be heavy too.
AFC Bournemouth 3 Portsmouth 0