Portsmouth v Charlton | Saturday 31st October | Match Preview, Predictions, News & Views

Well I predicted the correct score for the last two matches, so here is wisdom:

1-1

CL_Phantom said:

Wold happily see an U23/Barker at CB though, play Pratley in Midfield and reckon we could easily come away with a point, less disruption to the shape and continuity.

Would also love to see Barker given the opportunity, but not sure if Bows would risk it - maybe against a weaker side in the division but I just can't see it vs Pompey

"Pompey are in great form at the moment" ... "This will be a/our first real test" ... "We may be in the top six but we've only beaten sides at the bottom" ... etc

Bloody hell, given some of the comments on here since the full-time whistle on Tuesday evening you'd think Pompey are challenging for the Champions' (sic) League instead of merely one point ahead of us in Division Three having played a game more.

Pompey's great form? Five wins and a draw in October, current win streak stands at three.

We started the month with a draw and have rattled off four wins in a row since. Doesn't sound like we should be too scared based on recent results.

So far this season we've played four common opponents: Donny, Sunderland, Wigan, and Northampton. Pompey managed two wins (Sunderland, Northants), we got two wins (Wigan, Northants) and a draw (Sunderland). Little tick to us as we've got more points from those matches and we played Donny before TS got his feet under the table and enabled Lord Bowyer and Steve Gallen to wave their magic recruitment wand.

In Pompey's nine matches they have played just two teams currently in the top half of the table: Sunderland (7th) and Donny (9th); whilst they've faced three of the bottom five: Northampton (20th), Shrewsbury (21st), and Burton (24th). By contrast, Lord Bowyer's Mighty Addicks have come up against three sides in the top half (leaders Lincoln plus Pompey's two) and only two in the bottom five: Northampton and Oxford (23rd). The average league position of our opponents this season is 14th, Pompey's is 16th.

However, for all the talk of our lack of goals and free-scoring Pompey, it should be noted that we have scored in six out of our eight league matches this season whilst Pompey have scored in the same number of matches having played one extra. We may not score many but we do it regularly.

At the other end of the pitch we haven't conceded a goal this month and have six clean sheets in eight; the Fratton boys by contrast have a paltry four shut-outs in nine ... and half of those were in the opening pair of matches.

When you look at the above stats (other less-flattering stats may be available but I wasn't looking for those ) I don't think there's any cause for doom and gloom despite the absence of Inniss at the back. The good news is Lord Bowyer has enough options that don't involve taking kids from the nursery.

Old Man Pratley should be at centre-half back, regardless of whether we play three centre-backs or a conventional back four. I'd like to see Mount Chuks given free rein to batter the crap out of Pompey's back line and hopefully Maddy can run rings around the players that Chuks has let live.

I'm cautiously optimistic about tomorrow, with the emphasis very much on the cautious element. I expect the oppo will have considerably more possession than us (probably 65:35) and probably a lot of goal attempts but not really do much to trouble us as most shots will be from distance.

Pompey 0 Lord Bowyer's Rip-Roaring, Goal-Scoring, Clean-Sheet-Keeping Addicks 1 (Mount Chuks 59)

If we win this and Gunter plays then Iniss will be kicking himself for missing out

I fear a defeat, but I'll go for an optimistic 1-1.

I'll take a draw 1-1, i feel we are still getting settled and the CB being out gives us another problem.  

anything but a loss and i will remain positive we can push for top 3 rather than just settle for play offs. 

With 6 players out I would take a draw in this one .

I think we'll do just badly enough for Bowyer to skip the Manager Of The Month curse.

Think we will win. 

Going to be a tough game, Pompey are a good side and in form themselves, but so are we, even without the players we will be without.

I expect a couple of changes in addition to the two enforced. Pratley likely to play at centre back. I can’t see Barker in the squad, against a firing Pompey, it wouldn’t make sense when we have 5 fit defenders plus Pratley.

Could Maddison get his first start? Would be fantastic if he does and plays alongside Williams, that could be interesting.

I very much doubt Bowyer will go this attacking, but I’d like to see:

Amos
Gunter Pratley Famewo Maatsen
F-Caskey Shinnie Williams
Maddison Aneke Washington

Very easily adaptable to a diamond with Maddison behind the front two of Aneke and Washington as well. Forster-Caskey and Shinnie can take it in turns to be the one dropping a little deeper, with Williams able to roam and find space to hurt them. 

LonelyNorthernAddick said:

Briston_Addick said:

ForeverAddickted said:

On the player front and whilst much has been made about Charlton's lack of a clinical Striker you can argue that Portsmouth have two at present, both Marcus Harness (more of a winger) and John Marquis (remember him!!) are on five goals for the season

You could argue that Charlton know where the main goal threat will come from (Marquis de Sad (boo hoo) and Harness) and therefore it's easier to plan against. Do Portsmouth know where our goal threat is? We don't know where our goal threat is coming from most of the time so I'll be buggered if Pompey are going to know!

Love the enthusiasm in this post but my favourite part was where you made it sound like a positive that we don't know how we'll score goals 

I wasn't querying the "how", more the "who".

We scored six goals in October, with six different goal-scorers (one of which was the famous Irish player O'Goal).

In our eight league games we've scored nine goals but only Washington has more than one.

Are we capable of scoring a goal tomorrow? Yes

Who's going to score for us tomorrow? No bloody idea.

But someone will score for us tomorrow ...

I want to see Bowyer start with Madison and Aneke, I think we should start with our perceived best 11 available. If we have a result at 70 mins then, he can look to , make subs to hold onto what we have. If we are losing then, so be it. But, fielding under strength, and then asking the better players to come on and maybe chase the game, is not the way to go.