Pompey will be hoping to get back to winning ways when they host Dagenham & Redbridge at Fratton Park tomorrow night.
Team News
Jed Wallace and Jack Whatmough will be assessed ahead of the match after the former limped off at Southend and the latter went down with cramp but Awford is hopefuly both will play. Ryan Taylor is out with a groin strain whilst the game also comes too soon for Nigel Atangana.
Daggers manager Wayne Burnett is likely to make changes to his side after a 3-2 home defeat to Cambridge United. Former Pompey youth goalkeeper Liam O'Brien is one of those players in the firing line whilst defender Scott Doe could return from injury.
The Match
Saturday's showing at Southend was a reminder of the bad old days under Richie Barker. The team lacked any attacking potency and the effort and energy was absent. Despite Dagenham's poor start to the season a repeat performance from the weekend will see Pompey lose their fourth straight game without scoring.
Andy Awford has admitted that confidence is a bit low and his team are missing a bit of the "Pompey spirit" so now the honeymoon period is officially over we'll now discover just how good a manager he is.
Perhaps it's time to get back to basics and play a simple formation based on attacking the opposition rather than worrying too much about defending. After all, this Pompey side just doesn't keep clean sheets so they may as well be more forward thinking and put the shaky Daggers defence on the back foot from the off.
But who will score the goals? Craig Westcarr will do well to have players support him up front for a long period of time for a change and it's about time Ricky Holmes and Danny Hollands upped their game.
The crowd can play their part, too. Over 14,000 fans should be at Fratton Park tomorrow night and the last thing the Pompey players would want is for fans to get restless should they go a goal down. Having said that, there is a fear that the supporters would turn on their team should they be beaten again by a side that were beaten twice by Pompey last season.
Hopefully Pompey can get back on track with a win and a much needed three points to prevent this season from sliding into mediocrity, even at this early stage.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Pompey
GK: Paul JONES
RB: Alex WYNTER
CB: Jack WHATMOUGH
CB: Paul ROBINSON
LB: Nicky SHOREY
RM: Jed WALLACE
CM: Danny HOLLANDS
CM: James DUNNE
LM: Ricky HOLMES
CF: Craig WESTCARR
CF: Miles STOREY
Dagenham
GK: Mark COUSINS
RB: Nathan GREEN
CB: Brian SAAH
CB: Ian GAYLE
LB: Matt PARTRIDGE
RM: Ashley CHAMBERS
CM: Abu OGOGO
CM: Luke HOWELL
CM: Andre BOUCAUD
LM: Ashley HEMMINGS
CF: Jamie CURETON
Last Time: Portsmouth 1 Dagenham & Redbridge 0 (League Two - 26/12/2013)
A single scrappy goal from Romain Padovani was enough to defeat the Daggers and give Pompey their first win on Boxing Day since 2006.
My Prediction
It seems like Awford will have his troops geared up for this one and will go out to attack Dagenham. Hopefully the forwards can find their scoring touch as Pompey are bound to concede. This should be an entertaining match which the hosts should edge.
Portsmouth 2 Dagenham & Redbridge 1