Pompey will be hoping to bounce back from their Boxing Day defeat at Leyton Orient tomorrow as a familiar face rolls into town.
Team News
Adam Webster serves the first of his three-match-ban following his red card at Orient and now Paul Cook must decide who partners Matt Clarke at centre back. Gary Roberts came off the bench on Boxing Day and may be set to start tomorrow's game.
Andy Awford may make changes to the team he is currently in caretaker charge of Luton with defender Luke Wilkinson and midfielder Nathan Doyle pushing for recalls after knocks.
The Match
Firstly, let's take a look at the season so far at the halfway stage, shall we?
23 games have yielded 40 points courtesy of ten wins, ten draws and just the three defeats. Portsmouth currently lie in 4th position in the league (although Accrington could leap them thanks to their three games in hand) and are six points off the top of the table with the best goal difference in the division.
Most Pompey fans would have taken that with half the season still to play, wouldn't they?
It's also worth remembering that of the current crop of teams in the top half of the table, Pompey have played all but Accrington and Mansfield away from home with the rest, including the current top three, all to visit Fratton Park at some point between now and May.
Therefore, in theory at least, Pompey have an easier fixture list than their promotion rivals and also have greater resources to strengthen when the January transfer window opens. Automatic promotion is still certainly on the cards.
If that is to be achieved, however, then Pompey will have to win their next two home matches against mediocre opposition, the first of which is Luton Town who have flattered to deceive so drastically that John Still was recently sacked and Awford was temporarily promoted to first-team duties as the possibility of David James getting the full-time job ever increases.
The big question prior to the match tomorrow will be who replaces Webster after his needless intervention from what was a needless backpass by Danny Hollands yesterday.
Adam Barton filled the role for over an hour at Orient and was dreadful as he was beaten by Ollie Palmer for the second goal and is far too lightweight to be considered a centre back anyway.
So, with Webster unavailable, Christian Burgess injured and Jack Whatmough not match ready yet, who plays alongside Matt Clarke in the heart of the Pompey defence tomorrow?
Playing Barton there again wouldn't work and personally I believe Paul Cook may move Enda Stevens into the centre (where he previously played for Shamrock Rovers) and then play either Brandon Haunstrup or Rommy Boco at left back. The other option would be to take a more defensive midfielder such as Ben Close or Nigel Atangana from their natural position and play them alongside Clarke.
It's definitely the biggest conundrum Paul Cook faces ahead of the match but he also needs to decide if Gary Roberts should play from the start and who should he replace if he does?
He couldn't drop Gareth Evans on current form after his goal (or two) yesterday whilst Kyle Bennett on the other flank played his part in both of those goals. Marc McNulty obviously isn't going to make way so currently Roberts will have to make do with a place on the bench.
As for the opposition, Andy Awford's reign at the Hatters has resulted in a 3-2 win at Exeter followed by a tepid 2-0 defeat at home to Wycombe yesterday where the players were lambasted for not trying hard enough.
Much like Leyton Orient, Luton's squad consists of players that should be doing better than their current league position and therefore Pompey fans should be wary that they won't need motivation to play against the biggest club in the division on their own turf.
However, Pompey supporters also know first-hand just how awful Andy Awford's away record at the club closest to his heart was, especially against promotion chasing teams. Awford also won't have the advantage of knowing the current team inside-out as most of his players were culled by Paul Cook in the summer!
The current crop of players have already shown that they can bounce back from a defeat and given how Pompey were bossing yesterday's game until being reduced to ten men, it's safe to say that anything other than a win tomorrow would be considered a bad result.
Given that Plymouth are at Newport, Oxford are at Yeovil and Northampton meet Accrington tomorrow, this is a match that Pompey must win to keep pace with the leaders.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Pompey
GK: Brian MURPHY
RB: Ben DAVIES
CB: Matt CLARKE
CB: Enda STEVENS
LB: Brandon HAUNSTRUP
DM: Michael DOYLE
DM: Danny HOLLANDS
RM: Gareth EVANS
AM: Marc McNULTY
LM: Kyle BENNETT
CF: Caolan LAVERY
Luton
GK: Mark TYLER
RB: Sean LONG
CB: Magnus OKUONGHAE
CB: Scott CUTHBERT
LB: Luke WILKINSON
RM: Ryan HALL
CM: Johnathan SMITH
CM: Danny GREEN
LM: Cameron McGEEHAN
CF: Craig MACKAIL-SMITH
CF: Paul BENSON
Last Time: Portsmouth 2 Luton Town 0 (League Two - 14/03/2015)
Matt Tubbs struck after just three minutes of this game but Pompey had to withstand some pressure before Ryan Taylor finally sealed the win after lashing the ball home in what wasn't the most convincing of performances.
My Prediction
Pompey will undoubtedly struggle to keep a clean sheet with a makeshift defence whilst Luton can't defend whatsoever so this should be an entertaining game that Paul Cook's men eventually triumph in due to superior attacking quality.
Portsmouth 3 Luton Town 2