Pompey travel to Rodney Parade tomorrow to take on rock bottom Newport County.
Team News
Pompey will be without Gareth Evans for three matches after the appeal against his red card at Cambridge was rejected. Paul Cook has said that Kal Naismith will replace him and Caolan Lavery could also start after arriving on loan from Sheffield Wednesday.
New Newport boss John Sheridan could hand debuts to Cardiff loanees Tommy O'Sullivan and Jazzi Barnum-Bobb as he searches for his first win as manager.
The Match
Pompey fans are already concerned that the "new manager hoodoo" will hit Paul Cook's side given that Newport are bottom of League Two and new manager John Sheridan is yet to win a match in charge having seen his side draw 1-1 with Exeter and then get hammered 3-0 at Mansfield.
However, if there's one thing that this Portsmouth squad seem to have this season it's a little bit of luck as last week's win at Cambridge showed as the hosts went down to ten men and the first and third goal at the Abbey Stadium had a slice of good fortune about them.
That may stand Paul Cook's men in good stead against a side as poor as County but it should be said that they shouldnt be underestimated now Terry Butcher has been dismissed.
It'll be interesting to see how Naismith performs now that Evans is absent for three matches although whilst Lavery looks like an exciting signing, it would be extremely harsh to drop Matt Tubbs after his double last week.
The rest of the team should pick itself and so long as there's no complacency from the defense and the midfield, there's no reason why Pompey can't win their fifth away match in seven.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Newport
GK: Joe DAY
RB: Danny HOLMES
CB: Matthew TAYLOR
CB: Janoi DONACIEN
LB: Scott BARROW
RM: Jan KLUKOWSKI
CM: Mark BYRNE
CM: Tommy O'SULLIVAN
LM: Medy ELITO
CF: Lenell JOHN-LEWIS
CF: Zak ANSAH
Pompey
GK: Aaron McCAREY
RB: Ben DAVIES
CB: Christian BURGESS
CB: Matt CLARKE
LB: Enda STEVENS
DM: Michael DOYLE
DM: Adam BARTON
RM: Kal NAISMITH
AM: Gary ROBERTS
LM: Kyle BENNETT
CF: Matt TUBBS
Last Time: Newport County 1 Portsmouth 0 (League Two - 10/01/2015)
A single Mark Byrne strike that was originally flagged offside after Aaron O'Connor seemingly touched the ball was enough to see Andy Awford's Pompey side defeated with Jed Wallace also being denied a penalty after being brought down in the box.
My Prediction
The "new manager" factor may well apply to games like this usually but Pompey look like a team that can overcome such irritating things in football these days, especially against the worst team in the entire Football League.
Newport County 0 Portsmouth 2