Pompey take on Burton Albion tomorrow night looking for a win to ease growing relegation fears as a tough March continues.
Team News
Daniel Alfei will miss this game having been out of Saturday's match with Cheltenham because of a hamstring injury sustained whilst on international duty. Andy Barcham's wife has given birth but he strained a thigh on Friday and is still unavailable. Ryan Taylor could start after coming off the bench during the weekend.
Burton are without centre back Ian Sharps after he limped off during the 2-1 win at Oxford whilst Matty Palmer could be rested by manager Gary Rowett who is likely to replace him with Lee Bell.
The Match
Saturday's goalless draw drew moans from disgruntled fans who want to be entertained by going to watch a game of football, but Richie Barker's brand of play has been a turn off for the vast majority of his reign and it comes as no surprise that there are a fair few season ticket holders who simply won't bother attending tomorrow's match.
It's a very fair comment as football should be an entertainment business first and foremost and the draw with Cheltenham was the latest borefest, although the manager would argue that results are more important than pretty football at this current moment in time.
And whilst the fans have a point, Barker also has his point to make too as Pompey are still only seven points clear of a resurgent Northampton Town who are going to make the relegation battle interesting between now and the end of the season.
Portsmouth are still very much in that scrap for survival and defeat to Burton tomorrow and Fleetwood on Saturday could see the club in danger of being pulled into the bottom two at the worst possible time.
Therefore, it's only natural that Barker will play a more defensive game to ensure Pompey don't lose but it doesn't take a genius to work out that a string of draws will probably not be enough to keep Pompey from going down come the end of the season.
The team have to find some creativity from somewhere, but where? The central midfield duo of Diagarouga and Fogden are industrious but are unlikely to provide that killer pass to the strikers or score any goals themselves. Instead, the creative burden in this team falls to the wingers.
That's a worry given how poor Wallace performed on Saturday whilst Holmes wasn't much better, but even if they created the chances they still need someone to put them away and Jervis has been missing the target far too often recently.
If Ryan Taylor is fit to start then he should replace Jervis and play alongside Drennan who would be a willing runner alongside his tall, ginger strike partner who links play between the midfield very well. Taylor has arguably been the best signing of the season and his presence could be the difference between getting a result or not.
Whilst the defence kept their third clean sheet in a row against wasteful Cheltenham they did make some mistakes and the Brewers have players in Billy Kee and Zeli Ismail who know where the goal is and are more likely to punish any errors made by Pompey's back four.
As for trying to predict this match, there really is no point. Burton may be high-flying in fourth place in League Two but that counts for nothing as no team has been able to string a set of results together. As a Pompey fan, all I can hope for is a match that doesn't bore the crowd for long periods of the game. A win would be nice, too.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Pompey
GK: Trevor CARSON
RB: Joe DEVERA
CB: Bondz N'GALA
CB: Ben CHORLEY
LB: Nicky SHOREY
RM: Jed WALLACE
CM: Toumani DIAGAROUGA
CM: Wes FOGDEN
LM: Ricky HOLMES
CF: Ryan TAYLOR
CF: Jake JERVIS
Burton
GK: Rob LAINTON
RB: Phil EDWARDS
CB: Marcus HOLNESS
CB: Shane CANSDELL-SHERRIFF
LB: Damien McCRORY
RM: Zeli ISMAIL
CM: Robbie WEIR
CM: Lee BELL
LM: Jimmy PHILLIPS
CF: Billy KEE
CF: Dominic KNOWLES
My Prediction
Unless one of our creative players steps up or Richie Barker surprisingly decides to go for it, the first meeting between Pompey and Burton at Fratton Park is likely to go the same way as the first meeting between Pompey and Cheltenham at Fratton Park.
Portsmouth 0 Burton Albion 0