Pompey make their first ever journey to Fleetwood Town tomorrow looking to break their run of goalless draws, hopefully with a win.
Team News
Ben Chorley is an injury doubt due to the achilles problem he picked up during the goalless draw with Burton. Daniel Alfei could start after training in midweek whilst Andy Barcham may have recovered from his thigh problem.
Fleetwood manager Gary Alexander may stick with the same team that drew at Bury on Tuesday with attackers Bobby Grant and David Ball still missing.
The Match
The Pompey fans who will be making the long journey to the Lancashire coast will be hoping for some entertainment for a change after two extremely disappointing and boring goalless draws at Fratton Park.
They may be able to take some heart from the fact that Richie Barker's men seem to play better football when they are the underdogs, as demonstrated during the match at Chesterfield.
However, despite the moans and groans Pompey are actually in better form than their high-flying hosts who have only one win (against rock bottom Torquay) in their last six and were recently hammered 4-0 by Plymouth on their own patch.
So there is a chance that Richie Barker's men could steal a result if only his team were to come up a better pattern of play than the "pass sideways and hoof" style which has turned many Pompey fans off from watching a team that used to put on a show once upon a time.
Still, Barker has a point when he said during the week that the results come before the pretty football, especially as a defeat here could mean that Portsmouth are only two points clear of the bottom two should results go against them.
When the Cod Army were victorious at Fratton Park earlier in the season they were seen as a bit of a "bully boy" side but with players like Diagarouga in the centre and Taylor and Jervis up front that shouldn't be so much of a problem this time. This may be a too physical match for Padovani so hopefully Racon will finally get a chance to prove himself whilst Chorley being fit would be a massive bonus given that he has been the outstanding defender in the back four.
Should the captain not be fit then Alfei will probably come into the side at right back with Devera moving into the centre of defence where he is more comfortable. However they line up, they should be able to keep another clean sheet against shot-shy Fleetwood.
But unless Pompey get a lucky break or an individual produces something magic then this is likely to be another bore draw.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Fleetwood
GK: Chris MAXWELL
RB: Conor McLOUGHLIN
CB: Mark ROBERTS
CB: Nathan POND
LB: Charlie TAYLOR
DM: Alan GOODALL
CM: Josh MORRIS
CM: Steven SCHUMACHER
AM: Antoni SARCEVIC
CF: Jamille MATT
CF: Jon PARKIN
Pompey
GK: Trevor CARSON
RB: Daniel ALFEI
CB: Joe DEVERA
CB: Bondz N'GALA
LB: Nicky SHOREY
RM: Jed WALLACE
CM: Toumani DIAGAROUGA
CM: Thery RACON
LM: Ricky HOLMES
CF: Ryan TAYLOR
CF: Jake JERVIS
My Prediction
Let's not kid ourselves here, it's going to be goalless again, isn't it?
Fleetwood Town 0 Portsmouth 0