At the start of the season many must have pinpointed this game as a relegation decider, but mainly on behalf of Wigan who everyone thought would struggle. However Paul Jewell has done a fine job at Wigan this season and they have easily achieved beyond everyones expectations of them this season, although their european ambitions look to have diminished now. In truth, all eyes will be on our performance as it is obviously ourselves in danger and not Wigan.
Pedro Mendes is likely to start against Wigan and here is hoping Lua Lua is fit to start too because with him in our team we stand a better chance of winning, especially against a makeshift Wigan defence missing former Pompey captain Arjan De Zeeuw. Apart from that expect the same personnel that have performed so well at West Ham, Fulham and Charlton where in my opinion we have looked a much better team than at home where the performances have been understandably nervy and gritty. We do have a scoring run to keep up too, having scored at least once in every game since the Man City game and it's been a long time since a Wigan game was a goaless so don't expect a 0-0 tommorow!
Should we play as well as we have done when away from home tommorow then I am confident that we can win against a Wigan side who have only won once at home in 2006 and that was a narrow victory against a dire Aston Villa side. Jimmy Bullard also looks set to miss out after it was revealed today he is likely to move to Fulham. Benjani is still looking for his first goal for the club, I know I've said this a few times now but I have a feeling he will score tommorow, just a gut feeling! Speaking of gut feelings it wouldn't suprise me to see former Pompey man Jason Roberts score against us or ex-Scummer Camara also on the scoresheet, so let's hope I get yet another prediction wrong!
We will be 5,200 strong at Wigan tommorow and it could easily have been 10,000 if it wasn't for the stupidity of the Greater Manchester Police. But 5,200 is enough to make this fixture feel like a home game like it felt at Fulham where the atmosphere was incredible. Reproduce that, and no doubt Pompey will produce. We are loud on any day but come 3pm tommorow there's gonna be one hell of a sound coming from the North-West of England tommorow.
The primary target is a win tommorow, however a draw would be a decent result if Birmingham fail to beat Newcastle even if it does mean the relegation battle will go down to the final game. On the other hand get your party poppers at the ready... tommorow could be one hell of a day!
[b]Pundit Watch[/b]
Lawro: Draw (1-1)
Townsend: Home Win (1-0)
Sky Sports: Draw (1-1)
Soccernet: Draw