Pompey will be looking to cause a major upset in the Capital One Cup tomorrow when they take on Premier League side Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium.
Team News
Andy Awford is likely to rotate his squad again following Saturday's win at Oxford with nobody injured having recovered in time to play in this match.
Mark Hughes will assess ex-Barcelona striker Bojan Krkic and defender Phil Bardsley ahead of the tie but loan signing Victor Moses is certain to play. Stephen Ireland is out with a rib injury.
The Match
Tomorrow night we may well find out just how huge the gap is between the top and the bottom tier of English football. Mark Hughes will undoubtedly play a weakened side but he'll still expect Pompey to be beaten quite comfortably.
Stoke finished 9th in the Premier League last season but haven't started this campaign too well with a 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa and a 1-1 draw at ten-man-Hull thanks to a jammy late equaliser resulting from a throw in that should never have been given to the Potters.
Andy Awford faces the dilemma of whether to pick his strongest available team (if he even knows what that is) to give Pompey the best chance of winning or will he hold a few key players back knowing there is a more important league game on Saturday followed by a JPT trip to Yeovil on Tuesday?
I expect the Pompey manager may give the younger players like Jack Whatmough and Dan Butler a run out against their Premier League opposition. There will be no way he'll play a wing back system against a side with the quality to take advantage of the space exposed in that system so expect a compact formation with Ryan Taylor doing the donkey work up front.
There may be some familiar faces in the Stoke team as Asmir Begovic, Marc Wilson and Peter Crouch could face their former club. Then again, they may all be rested for their next match which happens to be away at Manchester City.
The only way I can see Pompey winning this match is if Hughes plays a weakened side which doesn't take their opponents seriously and arenot up for the fight. A slice of luck may well be required too but in all honesty Stoke will probably be too good for Andy Awford's men.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Stoke
GK: Jack BUTLAND
RB: Geoff CAMERON
CB: Ryan SHAWCROSS
CB: Phil BARDSLEY
LB: Andy WILKINSON
RM: Brek SHEA
CM: Wilson PALACIOS
CM: Charlie ADAM
LM: Victor MOSES
CF: BOJAN Krkic
CF: Peter CROUCH
Pompey
GK: Paul JONES
RB: Adam WEBSTER
CB: Jack WHATMOUGH
CB: Ben CHORLEY
LB: Dan BUTLER
RM: Jed WALLACE
CM: James DUNNE
CM: Danny HOLLANDS
CM: Nigel ATANGANA
LM: Ricky HOLMES
CF: Ryan TAYLOR
Last Time: Stoke City 1 Portsmouth 0 (Premier League - 22/09/2009)
Kevin-Prince Boateng missed an early penalty and that would prove costly as Ricardo Fuller scored the only goal of the game to win it for the Potters. This result saw the end of Paul Hart's brief tenure as Pompey manager.
My Prediction
As stated previously, it will take a monumental effort from Pompey to get through this tie and even that might not be enough depending on how diluted the Stoke side is. I expect Andy Awford's men to go down but not without a fight.
Stoke City 2 Portsmouth 0