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

Stoke City will play their final home game of the season when they welcome Portsmouth to the Bet365 Stadium on Saturday.

The Potters head into the weekend in 17th position, while Pompey are four points adrift in 20th place in the Championship table. 

Match preview

Stoke are on course for an eighth consecutive bottom-half finish in the Championship after mustering 55 points from their 44 league games this season.

The Potters were sitting in second place after 17 league matches, but a return of 25 points from their last 27 games has seen them slide down the standings.

In fact, they have taken just one point from their previous four outings since beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 at the start of the month.

Mark Robins's side suffered consecutive away defeats against Derby County and Wrexham, either side of a 1-1 draw at home to Blackburn Rovers, before they were comfortably beaten in Tuesday's meeting with promotion hopefuls Millwall.

A Caleb Taylor own goal proved to be the brightest point of a 3-1 defeat at the Bet365 Stadium, which brought an end to a six-game unbeaten home run (W3, D3).

As they now prepare for their final home outing of the 2025-26 campaign, the Potters can take confidence from the fact they have won each of their last three meetings with Portsmouth at the Bet365 Stadium, including a resounding 6-1 victory in their most recent home encounter in October 2024.

© Imago / Pro Sports Images

Portsmouth, meanwhile, have secured a third consecutive season in the second tier despite falling to a heavy defeat in Tuesday's away clash against Coventry City.

Pompey moved to the brink of safety with three consecutive victories over Middlesbrough, Ipswich Town and Leicester City.

However, they were unable to continue that run in Tuesday's trip to the Coventry Building Society Arena, where Adrian Segecic scored Portsmouth's only goal in a 5-1 loss that ended the club's five-game unbeaten run. 

Crucially, Oxford United's defeat to Wrexham on Tuesday sealed Portsmouth's survival, allowing the Pompey fans to celebrate with the Coventry faithful, who sealed the league title with an emphatic win over John Mousinho's side.

Pompey's hopes of avoiding another defeat on Saturday may be tempered by the fact they have lost five of their previous six competitive matches against Stoke, including a 1-0 loss in October's reverse fixture.

In fact, they have gone eight head-to-head away games without a win since claiming a 2-0 victory at the Victoria Ground in February 1995. 

Stoke City Championship form:

Portsmouth Championship form:

Team News

© Imago

Stoke are unable to call upon Aaron Cresswell and Bosun Lawal after the pair were forced with injury issues in last Saturday’s defeat to Wrexham.

The Potters are also remain without Viktor Johansson, Junior Tchamadeu, Ben Gibson, Ben Wilmot, Maksym Talovierov and Tomas Rigo.

Ben Pearson and Sam Gallagher could come into Robins's thinking if he opts to freshen up his lineup for the final home outing of the season.

Meanwhile, Mousinho is without the attacking trio of Keshi Anderson, Gustavo Caballero and Franco Umeh due to injury.

Pompey’s absentee list also features Mark Kosznovszky, Zak Swanson and the club’s Player of the season, Terry Devlin.

Captain Marlon Pack is likely to return to the starting lineup after dropping down to the bench for Tuesday’s heavy loss to Coventry.

Stoke City possible starting lineup:

Bazunu; Agina, Phillips, Otegbayo, Bocat; Pearson, Seko; Manhoef, Baker, Thomas; Gallagher

Portsmouth possible starting lineup:

Schmid; Williams, Poole, Dia, Ogilvie; Dozzell, Pack; Segecic, Chaplin, Alli; Bishop

We say: Stoke City 3-1 Portsmouth

Portsmouth put significant energy into claiming three consecutive victories, so it was not too surprising to see a drop-off in intensity in midweek.

They may struggle to move back through the gears now that safety is secured, and given their poor record away at Stoke, we think all the signs point to a home victory on Saturday. 

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