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

Stoke City will be looking to claim their first away win since August when they travel to Fratton Park for Saturday's meeting with Portsmouth.

The Potters will head into the weekend in sixth place in the Championship standings, while Pompey are operating in the bottom half in 17th position.

Match preview

After winning two of their opening four league games, Portsmouth have found victories much harder to come by in recent times, having seen their last seven matches produce one win, three draws and three defeats.

Their only victory in that period took place against Middlesbrough prior to the international break, before they returned to action with a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.

However, John Mousinho's side saw their three-game unbeaten run come to an end with a narrow defeat in Tuesday's home clash against league leaders Coventry City.

Makenzie Kirk's first Portsmouth goal ultimately arrived too late in the midweek outing, as his side fell to their third home defeat of the Championship season.

Pompey have now failed to score more than one goal in 10 of their 11 league games, highlighting a key area for improvement if they are to start moving up the table as they look to avoid another relegation battle.

Saturday's hosts had no trouble finding the net in their most recent meeting with Stoke in January, when Colby Bishop, Callum Lang and Connor Ogilvie all found the net in a 3-1 success at Fratton Park.

Stoke may be sitting in the top six of the Championship table, but they have lost momentum since starting the campaign with four wins in five league matches.

Mark Robins's side have recorded just one win in their last six outings (D3, L2), with that victory taking place in last Saturday's home clash against newly-promoted Wrexham.

The Potters failed to back up that narrow 1-0 win in Tuesday's trip to The Den, where they shipped two goals before the midway point of the first period in a 2-0 defeat to Millwall.

That result extended Stoke's winless away run to four matches since they picked up a 2-1 victory over Southampton on their most recent visit to the South coast on August 23.

Stoke can take confidence from the fact that they have won four of their previous five meetings with Portsmouth, even if their defeat in the period took place in January's away encounter.

With that said, Robins is still searching for his first away win against Pompey after drawing one and losing three of his four previous visits to Fratton Park in his managerial career.

Portsmouth Championship form:

L L D W D L

Stoke City Championship form:

L D D D W L

Team News

Portsmouth's lengthy injury list features Nicolas Schmid, Conor Shaughnessy, Jacob Farrell, Callum Lang, Franco Umeh, Harvey Blair and Thomas Waddingham.

Pompey are waiting to learn the extent of Adrian Segecic’s injury after the Australian’s substitute appearance on Tuesday was cut short due to a concerning ankle issue.

John Swift will serve a one-match ban for an accumulation of yellow cards, which will allow Conor Chaplin to play in his preferred number 10 position, while Mark Kosznovszky could come into the side to operate on the right flank.

In positive news, Jordan Williams and Josh Murphy are available for selection, although the latter will not be ready to start Saturday’s fixture.

Meanwhile, Stoke attacker Bae Jun-ho is expected to miss a third consecutive game after he picked up a shoulder problem on international duty.

Sam Gallagher remains sidelined with a calf issue, while Bosun Lawal is a doubt after sitting out the last three matches with a hamstring injury.

Right-back Junior Tchamadeu picked up his fifth yellow card of the season in midweek and will now miss the trip to the South coast through suspension.

Maksym Talovierov, Aaron Cresswell, Million Manhoef and Divin Mubama could all come into the starting lineup for Saturday’s contest.

Portsmouth possible starting lineup:

Schmid; Williams, Knight, Poole, Ogilvie; Pack, Dozzell; Kosznovszky, Chaplin, Yang; Bishop

Stoke City possible starting lineup:

Johansson, Wilmot, Phillips, Talovierov, Cresswell; Rigo, Seko; Manhoef, Baker, Thomas; Mubama

We say: Portsmouth 1-1 Stoke City

Portsmouth have won just one of their last seven matches, while Stoke have failed to win any of their previous four away matches, and with wins proving to be hard to come by for both teams, we think that the two sides will have to settle for a share of the spoils on Saturday.

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