Pompey travel to Humberside tomorrow looking to build on an encouraging performance against West Ham last week.
Team News
Liam Lawrence is banned following his red card at Upton Park and is likely to be replaced by Joel Ward in midfield. Dave Kitson is available again following an illness but Benjani is expected to keep his place up front with Luke Varney and Erik Huseklepp supporting him out wide.
Hull will be without captain Andy Dawson who suffered a knee injury in training and Paul McShane is also out. Martyn Waghorn is expected to play ahead of Matty Fryatt after he impressed at Peterborough last week.
The Match
Many Pompey fans came away from the Boleyn Ground last Saturday in a positive mood following a positive performance against the Championship favourites. If Steve Cotterill's men can repeat that performance tomorrow then there is every chance they can come away from East Yorkshire with a win.
However, scoring against this Hull City side may prove difficult as they don't concede many goals, however, they don't score many either. All three of their wins this season have been 1-0 victories against Reading, Peterborough and Ipswich whilst two of their defeats have also been 1-0 to Blackpool and Crystal Palace. The other was a 4-1 thrashing at Leeds.
This fixture may well bring back memories to those who travelled to the KC Stadium last season when there was a chance that game may well have been the last in Portsmouth FC's history. As it happened, Pompey won 2-1 and came out of administration the following day after the Gaydamak dispute was resolved.
This game might be another tight affair and I do not expect Pompey to score three goals against the solid back four of the Tigers. It'll be interesting to see how Pompey will line up tactically after Steve Cotterill's rant on the BBC Solent forum on Tuesday.
Expect Pompey to line up 4-3-3 and NEVER to revert to 4-4-2 and I'll be keeping a close eye on just how many players are kept back if or when Hull win a corner. Will Pompey play the ball along the ground for the second week running and will Jamie Ashdown lump the ball up to Varney for every goal kick?
I'm not expecting an extremely entertaining affair at the KC Stadium but should the wide men and Benjani perform as well as they did last week and the defence can tighten up then I believe we will win this game.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Hull
GK: Adriano BASSO
RB: Liam ROSENIOR
CB: Jack HOBBS
CB: James CHESTER
LB: Joe DUDGEON
CM: Tom CAIRNEY
CM: Robert KOREN
CM: Paul McKENNA
RWF: Robert BRADY
LWF: Martyn WAGHORN
CF: Aaron McLEAN
Pompey
GK: Jamie ASHDOWN
RB: Aaron MOKOENA
CB: Greg HALFORD
CB: Jason PEARCE
LB: Tal BEN-HAIM
CM: Hayden MULLINS
CM: David NORRIS
CM: Joel WARD
RWF: Erik HUSEKLEPP
LWF: Luke VARNEY
CF: BENJANI
Click here for the Fratton Faithful Hull City Championship Profile page.
Last Time: Hull City 1 Portsmouth 2 (Championship - 23/10/2010)
In what thankfully wasn't Portsmouth's final ever game, David Nugent gave the visitors the lead in first half stoppage time when he raced away from the sleeping home back line.
Halford then smashed in a deflected free kick just after the break to double Pompey's lead and despite Nicky Barmby pulling one back for the Tigers it wasn't enough as Steve Cotterill's team held on for another win.
My Prediction
Pompey are unbeaten at the KC Stadium and I can see that continuing tomorrow. This is the most optimistic I have been about the team for almost a year now and I think we'll get three points and keep a clean sheet.
Hull City 0 Portsmouth 1