Cardiff vs Portsmouth Preview

Last updated : 15 April 2011 By Jim Bonner
Pompey will be looking to ensure their season doesn't peter out completely by getting a result at high-flying Cardiff City tomorrow.

Team News

Hayden Mullins is suspended following his red card against Coventry but Liam Lawrence should be available to start after coming on as a substitute. It might be that Steve Cotterill employs a change in formation to reverse the club's recent poor run.

Michael Chopra is missing for Cardiff but Stephen McPhail is hopeful of making the squad after shaking off a niggling injury.

The Match

There are a fair few Pompey fans who would have paid good money to travel to the Welsh capital to watch their team play tomorrow, so I hope that Steve Cotterill reminds his men of this before they take to the field.

Should we see a display similar to that against Coventry, bad referee or not, then I can only see Cardiff thrashing us given the incentive of automatic promotion to play for.

There are still a fair few Bluebirds that are after revenge for our FA Cup triumph over them in 2008, despite Cardiff's easy win at Fratton Park earlier in the season.

For the record, four players from both clubs featured in that FA Cup final who still remain with them now.

They are Kevin McNaughton, Stephen McPhail, Peter Whittingham and Gavin Rae for Cardiff and Jamie Ashdown, Hermann Hreidarsson, David Nugent and Kanu for Pompey.

Back to the match today it might be that a win for Cardiff could give them a significant step to the Premier League next year whilst we'll be scrapping in the Championship next season.

There is some hope as Pompey's performances on the road have generally been better than those at home this year and for some strange reason we always seem to perform against the better teams in this division.

However, with absolutely nothing to play for and with the majority of the current playing staff not knowing where they'll be playing their football next season, then I can't see anything but a defeat.

But Pompey have proved me wrong on many occasions this season, so hopefully this will be another surprising, but welcome victory to appease the fans as this mediocre/successful (delete as appropriate) campaign draws to a close.

Predicted Starting Line-Ups

Cardiff

GK: Tom HEATON

RB: Paul QUINN
CB: Dekel KEINAN
CB: Kevin McNAUGHTON
LB: Lee NAYLOR

RM: Chris BURKE
CM: Stephen McPHAIL
CM: Seyi OLOFINJANA
LM: Peter WHITTINGHAM

CF: Craig BELLAMY
CF: Jay BOTHROYD

Pompey

GK: Jamie ASHDOWN

RB: Ritchie DE LAET
CB: Greg HALFORD
CB: Ricardo ROCHA
LB: Hermann HREIDARSSON

RM: Liam LAWRENCE
CM: Joel WARD
CM: Jonathan HOGG
LM: David COTTERILL

CF: David NUGENT
CF: Dave KITSON

Last Time: Cardiff City 0 Portsmouth 2 (League Cup Fifth Round - 09/11/2004)

Yakubu netted a double early in the second half to sink the Bluebirds at Ninian Park. His first goal came when Lomana LuaLua's cross was tipped onto the bar by Tony Warner, only for the Nigerian to prod the ball in and the second was a penalty that sealed Pompey's passage into the quarter final of the Carling Cup.

My Prediction

I hold some hope that the players will want to repent for Tuesday's woeful showing but I feel Cardiff will simply be too strong for us. For those who are going tomorrow, I expect we'll hear plenty of "England" and "When Sol went up..." songs!

Cardiff City 2 Portsmouth 0