Bolton make one of their longer trips tomorrow, as they head to the South Coast to take on Portsmouth.
We’ve dropped into the bottom half of the table after Lincoln won in midweek, but in a squished mid-table, we could theoretically go as high as seventh if we won tomorrow. With only a six-point gap between us and the bottom four though, it seems like a crucial next few league games for us though.
IAN EVATT | Wanderers manager speaks ahead of Portsmouth away league fixture – YouTube
Team news
Amadou Bakayoko is out for this match, although George Johnston should be available after coming off at half-time last Saturday. Gethin Jones remains a long-term absentee, though apparently he’s now out of his protective boot.
Possible XI: Dixon; Isgrove, Almeida Santos, Johnston, John; Sheehan, Williams; Kachunga, Lee, Afolayan; Doyle
Last time out
Bolton’s last trip to Fratton Park was in September 2019 – Pompey were there for the taking and were booed off after we were the better side in the first half. We didn’t take advantage though, even though Brett Pitman missed a second half penalty, he would then make amends scoring the only goal of the match.
The opposition
It’s Danny Cowley’s first full season in charge of Portsmouth after just missing out on the playoffs last season, but things haven’t gone that well so far, sitting 16th, three points behind us. Consistency is a major problem, they thrashed Sunderland, but also were thrashed by Ipswich. Mahlon Romeo, who has played against us quite a few times for Millwall, has joined them on loan. The right-back’s dad in Jazzie B, who is the frontman of Soul II Soul. Elsewhere, Irish international winger Ronan Curtis will be a source of energy and give whoever plays right-back for us a test, while Marcus Harness has four goals in his last six matches.
Prediction
Anything could happen here, we could lose heavily, but like Charlton and Ipswich we’re going to a big club in this division who weren’t doing too well, and on both occasions we came up with, well, our two biggest wins of the season! Realistically, this is a game between two teams with similar recent form, each with a win and a draw in their last five league games. A draw would be a sensible prediction. 1-1.