Pompey take on Northampton Town tomorrow night as the top two teams in the League Two form table go head-to-head.
Team News
Jack Whatmough will be given a fitness test tomorrow before the team travel after missing Saturday's match. James Dunne serves the second game of his suspension but Paul McCallum is finally available again after completing his seven-match-ban.
League Two's top scorer Marc Richards will be assessed having missed Northampton's win at Shrewsbury on Saturday whilst John-Joe O'Toole remains suspended. Ricky Holmes is virtually certain to start against his former employers.
The Match
Tomorrow's match at Sixfields is an intriguing one for a number of reasons. The two prime candidates for February's manager-of-the-month award pit their wits against each other whilst the match should also have the two best strikers in the division on the pitch.
Add to that the Ricky Holmes factor and a very important three points up for grabs between two sides who have found the net regularly recently and you have the makings of an excellent game of football tomorrow.
Whilst Oxford were happy to play for a draw on Saturday, a point is no good for either the Cobblers or Pompey if they're to have serious aspirations of gatecrashing the play-offs come May.
Given Northampton's willingness to come forward, Dunne is going to be a big miss in the centre of the park as he has been instrumental in breaking down attacks and even creating chances for others, with his performance at Cambridge underlining that.
However, the Cobblers' ideal of getting forward quickly could well play into Pompey's hands. The wing back system is suited to catching teams on the break and swamping the midfield so as long as none of our players bottle it (looking at you here, Nige) then there's no reason why the likes of Matt Tubbs and Ryan Taylor won't get chances to score.
As for Holmes, he has been "dynamite" for Northampton since leaving Fratton Park and it wouldn't be surprising at all to see him score. Having said that, the Pompey defence should know how to deal with him and he could always have one of his numerous "off nights" tomorrow.
Tomorrow night could well be the night that Pompey announce themselves as genuine contenders for a late play-off push but a defeat will all-but consign Pompey to another season in the football league's bottom tier.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Northampton
GK: Matt DUKE
RB: Brendan MOLONEY
CB: Ryan CRESSWELL
CB: Lee COLLINS
LB: Evan HORWOOD
DM: Joel BYROM
DM: Jason TAYLOR
RM: Chris HACKETT
CM: Lawson D'ATH
LM: Ricky HOLMES
CF: Ivan TONEY
Pompey
GK: Paul JONES
RWB: Josh PASSLEY
CB: Ben CHORLEY
CB: Paul ROBINSON
CB: Joe DEVERA
LWB: Dan BUTLER
CM: Danny HOLLANDS
CM: Nigel ATANGANA
CM: Jed WALLACE
CF: Ryan TAYLOR
CF: Matt TUBBS
Last Time: Northampton Town 0 Portsmouth 1 (League Two - 21/04/2014)
Danny East bagged an early goal as a weakened Pompey team were lucky enough to keep a clean sheet against Northampton's wayward attack.
My Prediction
Holmes will score but there's enough in this Pompey side to score a couple of goals themselves. This should be an entertaining match but the end result won't be much good to either side.
Northampton Town 2 Portsmouth 2