Pompey make the long journey to Spotland to take on League Two leaders Rochdale tomorrow night.
Team News
Ben Chorley serves the first of his four-match ban tomorrow but Michael Drennan's loan from Aston Villa has been extended until the end of the season. Romain Padovani and Andy Barcham remain injury doubts.
Rochdale midfielder Matty Lund returns from a one match ban but manager Keith Hill is unlikely to tinker with his team with his side now on a winning run.
The Match
It's difficult to be optimistic heading into an away match with the current league leaders, especially with the captain banned and lack of any momentum with Pompey not winning in five matches.
However, if there is a positive to be taken into this match it's that Portsmouth have visited two previous league leaders earlier in the year and come away with a result. The first was a drab goalless draw at Oxford but the performance at Chesterfield surprised many and a draw was the least Pompey deserved from that match.
It may well be clutching at straws, but perhaps Richie Barker and his team now know how truly dire the situation at this football club is and maybe, just maybe they will produce a performance that gets them a result, whether it be a backs-to-the-wall job or a throw-caution-to-the-wind showing against a team that has won their last three games.
The performance on Saturday wasn't terrible by any means but it will take more than an energetic Jed Wallace to galvanise this team into any sort of attacking force. Ricky Holmes has been poor since his man-of-the-match performance at Chesterfield and so needs to improve, or maybe Wes Fogden should come back into the team?
Chorley's absence is a worry as Pompey's defence lacks leadership without him. Joe Devera is likely to replace him alongside Bondz N'Gala but who knows what Barker is thinking? It's difficult to guess who he will play and what system he'll use and that inconsistency has been part of his problem as his team struggle to string any meaningful passes together.
Fans will try and be positive and hopefully that is reflected by the support in the stands tomorrow evening but in all reality this could easily be a hammering which sees the vast majority of supporters turn on Barker (if they haven't already) with more ugly scenes amongst our own support.
Hopefully, it won't come to that. Hopefully, this rabble will find some way of getting a result.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Rochdale
GK: Josh LILLIS
RB: Joe RAFFERTY
CB: Ashley EASTHAM
CB: Olly LANCASHIRE
LB: Michael ROSE
RM: Peter VINCENTI
CM: Peter KAVANAGH
CM: Matty LUND
LM: Matt DONE
CF: Joe BUNNEY
CF: Ian HENDERSON
Pompey
GK: Trevor CARSON
RB: Daniel ALFEI
CB: Joe DEVERA
CB: Bondz N'GALA
LB: Nicky SHOREY
DM: Jack WHATMOUGH
CM: Toumani DIAGOURAGA
CM: Rhys McCABE
AM: Jed WALLACE
CF: Jake JERVIS
CF: Michael DRENNAN
Last Time: Rochdale 1 Portsmouth 2 (Division Four - 22/09/1979)
Fans who were at this game will remember the Dale keeper dropping the ball he had claimed only for Colin Garwood to sneak up from behind him, take the ball and put it into an empty net. Alan Rogers scored the other goal.
My Prediction
As much as I'd like to remain optimistic my head suggests that this is going to be a very long night with very little to cheer about. If we lose by many and Northampton dish Wimbledon a thrashing tomorrow then Pompey will find themselves in the bottom two.
Rochdale 3 Portsmouth 0