Preview: Portsmouth vs Hull City - prediction, team news, lineups

Promotion-chasing Hull City will travel to Fratton Park for Saturday's Championship meeting with Portsmouth.

The Tigers occupy fifth spot in the Championship standings, while Pompey are five points clear of the drop zone in 19th position.

Match preview

After playing three consecutive games on the road, Portsmouth are set to return to Fratton Park for the first time since losing 1-0 to Sheffield United on February 14.

John Mousinho's charges enjoyed two successful trips to the capital, recording 3-1 victories over Charlton Athletic and Millwall to claim back-to-back away league wins for the first time this season.

However, they were unable to make it three successive away wins in Tuesday's narrow 2-1 defeat against Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground.

Full-back Zak Swanson found the net in the opening stages of the second period to reduce Wrexham's two-goal advantage, but Pompey ultimately failed in their quest to find a leveller in their first away meeting with the Red Dragons since 1986.

The south coast side are now preparing for a meeting with promotion hopefuls Hull, a team they have not beaten since recording a 2-0 away victory in December 2020.

They should at least fancy their chances of negating the threat of the league's third-highest scorers, given the fact they have not conceded more than one goal in any of their previous 10 Championship home games.

Hull are currently six points adrift of second-placed Middlesbrough with a game in hand after winning 17, drawing six and losing 10 of their 33 league matches this season.

The Tigers went three Championship games without a win before they returned to winning ways in Tuesday's home clash with Derby County.

With the score level at two goals apiece, John Egan and Lewis Koumas scored in the final 15 minutes to fire Sergej Jakirovic's side to a 4-2 victory.

While they may have ended a four-game wnless home run in midweek, the Tigers will be looking forward to heading on their travels for Saturday's contest, having won six of their previous seven road trips since losing 3-2 to Queens Park Rangers in November (D1).

In fact, Hull have won each of their last four away matches, keeping clean sheets in three of those victories.

Another win on Saturday would see them complete a league double over Pompey after prevailing by a 3-2 scoreline in November's reverse fixture.

Portsmouth Championship form:

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Hull City Championship form:

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Hull City form (all competitions):

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Team News

Portsmouth are having to contend with a lengthy injury list that includes Keshi Anderson, Josh Murphy, Florian Bianchini, Franco Umeh and Thomas Waddingham.

They are also without the defensive quartet of Conor Shaughnessy, Hayden Matthews, Josh Knight and Keshi Anderson, while the midfield duo of Mark Kosznovszky and Andre Dozzell are out with knee and ankle injuries respectively.

John Swift is the latest injury concern after he was forced off in the first half against Wrexham due to a hamstring issue.

Hull are unable to call upon Bristol City loanee Yu Hirakawa, who will miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury.

Left-back Ryan Giles could miss up to six weeks of action after sustaining a hamstring injury in Tuesday's win over Derby.

The visitors are also expected to be without the services of Semi Ajayi, Matty Jacob, Eliot Matazo, Darko Gyabi and Mohamed Belloumi.

Portsmouth possible starting lineup:

Schmid; Devlin, Poole, Ogilvie, Swanson; Pack, Adams; Caballero, Segecic, Alli; Bishop

Hull City possible starting lineup:

Pandur; Coyle, Egan, Hughes, Drameh; Hadziahmetovic, Slater; Joseph, Gelhardt, Millar; McBurnie

We say: Portsmouth 1-2 Hull City

Pompey showed signs of tiredness in Tuesday's defeat against Wrexham, and with Mousinho still dealing with a signicant injury list, we think their recent busy run of games could play a role in Saturday's fixture.

The Tigers have been a strong force on the road this season, and we believe they will have the quality required to claim a narrow win at Fratton Park.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.