Pompey are looking to bounce back from their defeat at Shrewsbury with victory against Carlisle United at Fratton Park tomorrow.
Team News
Andy Awford has hinted that he will stick to a very similar side to the one that narrowly lost at Shrewsbury last Saturday although Ryan Taylor could start up front and Jack Whatmough also returns from injury.
Carlisle boss Keith Curle has loaned in Burnley defender Tom Anderson to help ease their defensive crisis whilst Derek Asamoah will be on the bench again due to a lack of match fitness even though he has scored in consecutive games.
The Match
On paper, this looks like a match Pompey could and should win given that the home form hasn't actually been too bad with only one league defeat at Fratton Park all season and the fact that the Cumbrians don't travel well.
Not only that, but Carlisle have the worst defensive record in League Two and have injury problems but then Pompey are guilty of having one of the worst goalscoring ratio in the division, although that is primarilly due to the abysmal record of having only found the net three times away from home in league games.
Generally, this should be a well balanced match with both teams playing 4-4-2 formations and although the opposition are terrible at the back, they have plenty of energy going forward and usually score. Given that Pompey can't keep a clean sheet this may well be a fixture you put on your "both teams to score" coupon at the bookies.
Speaking of goals, it'll be interesting to see if Awford continues to have faith in Craig Westcarr or if he decides to play Ryan Taylor alongside Miles Storey instead. Also, this seems to get mentioned every week now but the likes of Ricky Holmes and Danny Hollands need to start chipping in with goals from midfield as currently the team are far too reliant on Jed Wallace to score the goals.
Ultimately, Pompey should have enough quality to win this match so long as the defence remains tight and stops the basic errors which has seen so many poor goals conceded in recent matches.
Three points is extremely important tomorrow as failure to beat the lowly Cumbrians will have people questioning Awford's managerial abilities and wondering if this is going to be another wasted season.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Pompey
GK: Paul JONES
RB: Joe DEVERA
CB: Ben CHORLEY
CB: Paul ROBINSON
LB: Nicky SHOREY
RM: Jed WALLACE
CM: James DUNNE
CM: Danny HOLLANDS
LM: Ricky HOLMES
CF: Ryan TAYLOR
CF: Miles STOREY
Carlisle
GK: Dan HANFORD
RB: Hayden WHITE
CB: Tom ANDERSON
CB: Courtney MEPPEN-WALTER
LB: Danny GRAINGER
RM: David AMOO
CM: Gary DICKER
CM: Kyle DEMPSEY
LM: Brad POTTS
CF: Mark BECK
CF: Steven RIGG
Last Time: Portsmouth 1 Carlisle United 1 (League One - 16/02/2012)
Rory Loy gave the visitors a second half lead after rounding Simon Eastwood but Pompey levelled when Mark Gillespie took down John Akinde in the box which allowed Liam Walker to score the resulting penalty and earn a point for Pompey.
My Prediction
Pompey generally haven't been too bad at home and they should have enough quality to dispose of the Cumbrians, although there should be goals aplenty.
Portsmouth 3 Carlisle United 2