Pompey will be aiming to maintain their 100% record this season with a win at the Broadfield Stadium on Tuesday evening.
Team News
Paul Cook has already admitted that he will pick the same starting eleven as the previous two league games. Kal Naismith is still out with a thigh injury and it's unlikely that Adam Barton or James Dunne will get on the bench either.
Izale McLeod is unlikely to play against his former club as he refuses to play for Crawley and wants to leave the club. Sonny Bradley will start against his former employers but midfielder Conor Henderson will miss out again with an ankle injury.
The Match
After Andy Awford's knack for tinkering with his team last season, it's refreshing to see Paul Cook state that he won't change a winning team because his side have been so impressive in their opening league fixtures.
It may mean that other players who performed so well against Derby last Wednesday may be unfairly left out but they still represent excellent options on the bench should things go awry tomorrow.
Crawley have been tipped to struggle this season due to their downward momentum, lack of funding and their star striker McLeod squinnying about a move away from the Sussex club.
He won't be playing against his old team but Sonny Bradley will and given that a bottle of cheap supermarket orange juice has more concentration than the former Pompey defender then there's no reason why Pompey shouldn't score on Wednesday evening.
The Red Devils do have a couple of dangerous players in their squad such as Luke Rooney and Lee Barnard who has found the net against Pompey on more than one occasion but confidence is so high at Portsmouth right now that a draw at Crawley wouldn't be considered a great result.
After all, the team are playing well and has people capable of causing damage all over the pitch as well as being a sound defensive unit. The only concern is the role of Matt Tubbs as a lone striker but he may relish playing against his former club.
Other than that, we should be able to look forward to another good day in what could well be an excellent season for Pompey.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Crawley
GK: Freddie WOODMAN
RB: Liam DONNELLY
CB: Sonny BRADLEY
CB: Jon ASHTON
LB: Bryan van den BOGAERT
RM: Gwion EDWARDS
CM: Simon WALTON
CM: Jimmy SMITH
LM: Luke ROONEY
CF: Matt HARROLD
CF: Roarie DEACON
Pompey
GK: Brian MURPHY
RB: Ben DAVIES
CB: Christian BURGESS
CB: Matt CLARKE
LB: Enda STEVENS
DM: Michael DOYLE
DM: Nigel ATANGANA
RM: Gareth EVANS
AM: Gary ROBERTS
LM: Kyle BENNETT
CF: Matt TUBBS
Last Time: Crawley Town 0 Portsmouth 3 (League One - 09/09/2012)
This was an even game until Josh Simpson was sent off for a second bookable offence despite not touching Izale McLeod. The latter was then felled by Hope Akpan and he was given his marching orders as the hosts were reduced to nine men.
Pompey finally took advantage as Ashley Harris scored a diving header and then Luke Rodgers curled in an excellent free kick soon after. McLeod added a third as he rounded Paul Jones in the Crawley goal and slotted into an empty net to leave Red Devils manager Richie Barker fuming.
My Prediction
How can you not be confident after the first three performances of the season? If Crawley are as bad as some of their fans say then this should be another enjoyable game for Pompey fans.
Crawley Town 0 Portsmouth 2