Pompey fans will be hoping for a comfortable victory over League Two side Barnet at Fratton Park tomorrow evening as the Carling Cup campaign gets underway.
Team News
Liam Lawrence is unlikely to feature again due to his "mystery" injury whilst Tal Ben-Haim and Hermann Hreidarsson are on international duty. Jason Pearce is also serving the second match of his three match ban.
Barnet manager Lawrie Sanchez has injury problems with centre backs Daniel Leach and Darren Dennehy missing as well as striker Steve Kabba. Liam O'Brien, who was released by Steve Cotterill last season, should start on the bench for the Bees.
The Match
With Pompey's squad stretched to the absolute limit, there is a chance that Barnet may come to Fratton Park thinking they can cause an upset. Lawrie Sanchez is a good manager at smaller clubs and his team does contain a couple of good players, namely Izale McLeod and Mark Marshall.
It should be presumed that Stephen Henderson will get his chance to impress during this game and it may well be that Ryan Williams and Christian Dailly start after coming on as substitutes on Saturday.
The back four is also certain to be shaken up with Hermann and Ben-Haim missing so with no recognised left back in the squad I expect Joel Ward to fill in with Mokoena coming in at centre back and Halford moving to right back.
With such extortionate prices being charged for this match I can't see more than 5,000 fans turning up for a game of little interest. However, the players will not want to be on the wrong end of a cup shock and should have enough quality to get through to the next round.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Pompey
GK: Stephen HENDERSON
RB: Greg HALFORD
CB: Ricardo ROCHA
CB: Aaron MOKOENA
LB: Joel WARD
RM: Ryan WILLIAMS
CM: David NORRIS
CM: Christian DAILLY
CM: Hayden MULLINS
LM: Luke VARNEY
CF: Dave KITSON
Barnet
GK: Dean BRILL
RB: Danny SENDA
CB: Clovis KAMDJO
CB: Anwar UDDIN
LB: Jordan PARKES
RM: Sam DEERING
CM: Mark BYRNE
CM: Mark HUGHES
LM: Mark MARSHALL
CF: Izale McLEOD
CF: Jason PRICE
My Prediction
Whilst Pompey are comfortable favourites it wouldn't surprise me to see our team make things difficult for themselves, especially with a makeshift defence. Quality should prevail in the end, though.
Portsmouth 3 Barnet 1