Pompey will be keen to finally return to Championship action when they visit south Wales to take on Swansea on Saturday (3pm kick-off). With their previous two scheduled contests against Blackburn and Millwall being postponed, John Mousinho's men have not been in action since beating Preston before the international break. Their opponents, by contrast, have been pretty busy over the past, starting with a dramatic home defeat to Leeds last Sunday. Florian Bianchini appeared to have secured a 3-3 draw when he struck in the 90th minute at the Swansea.com Stadium, only for Wilfried Gnonto to immediately grab a stoppage-time winner for the visitors. But City bounced back on Wednesday night, as Žan Vipotnik and Ronald both found the target in a 2-1 victory at Derby. That result leaves Luke Williams' side sitting 11th in second tier standings, seven points clear of the drop zone and five adrift of the play-off spots. The boss arrived at the club back in January and will be hoping for an improvement on last term, when his team ended up in 14th position. Goals from David Nugent and Greg Halford secured a 2-1 success when Pompey last made the trip to Swansea in November 2012, although the Welsh side ended up securing promotion to the Premier League that season. TEAM NEWS Jacob Farrell (knee), Conor Shaughnessy (calf), Zak Swanson (heel), Jordan Williams (hamstring) and Kusini Yengi (knee) are all sidelined for Pompey. Ibane Bowat is set to miss the the rest of the season with a serious knee injury, but Colby Bishop could feature after making a suprise appearance from the bench against Preston following his summer heart surgery. Ollie Cooper (foot), Andy Fisher (groin) and Josh Ginnelly (Achilles), while Sam Parker (hamstring) and Jisung Eom (knee) are both major doubts, but former Fratton loanee Myles Peart-Harris could feature. VIEW FROM THE DRESSING ROOM Read the thoughts of John Mousinho ahead of the big game. HEAD TO HEAD Overall Pompey: 11 wins Swansea: 7 wins 14 draws On the Road Pompey: 3 wins Swansea: 4 wins 8 draws Last Away Meeting Swansea 1 (Beattie) Pompey 2 (Nugent, Halford) Championship November 26 2010 TICKETS Pompey have sold the full of allocation tickets for this fixture and they are not available to purchase at Swansea on the day of the game. Click here to read a guide to visiting the Swansea.com Stadium that has been produced by the home club. OFFICIALS Referee: Will Finnie Assistants: Jonathan Hunt and Bhupinder Singh Gill Fourth Official: David Rock Finnie last took charge of Pompey when they drew 2-2 with Derby at Fratton Park in League One back in April, showing a couple of yellow cards to Blues players and one to the visitors. MATCH COVERAGE Supporters based overseas can watch the game on Pompey+, either through a monthly/annual subscription or by purchasing a match pass. The pre-match show is live before the game for Pompey+ subscribers and overseas fans with a video subscription/match pass. George Wedlake and the team will be presenting from the Fratton Park studio. Fans can get involved by sending messages and voicenotes to our Pompey+ WhatsApp channel* on +44 7457 413694 or via this link. Please note that the half-time and post-match shows are only available to watch for fans in regions where the game is being shown live on Pompey+. Audio commentary from Andrew Moon and Guy Whittingham is available for Pompey+ subscribers or those who purchase an audio subscription/match pass. Click here for more details about using Pompey+, including the answers to some frequently asked questions. Locally-based fans who are not going to the game can listen as always via BBC Radio Solent or Express FM (not available online). *Please note that the WhatsApp service is only for sending messages to appear on the matchday show. The club will not be able to reply to any messages.
From the Swans’ website this morning: Luke Williams: "We've had a busy schedule, so to get a positive result and to then be back playing at home has given everyone a boost. "We are not feeling sorry for ourselves because of how busy the schedule has been and will be, we are looking forward to the game more than anything else. "For them, not playing (because of postponements of fixtures against Blackburn and Millwall) means they have probably had some players able to recover better, but then some players would not prefer that because they like the feeling of having a rhythm and a flow. "I guess we will find out the impact it might have had when it's 5pm and we see how the teams have performed." John Mousinho: “We’ve had to adjust – we changed things around at the weekend and came in on the Sunday to train. “We then trained on the pitch after Wednesday’s game was called off, which is something we wouldn’t normally do, but we needed to get something into the boys’ legs. “So we’ll go to Swansea having not played a game for three weeks, which has both its positives and its drawbacks. “I’m sure they’ll be thinking that it’s a boost for us because we’re nice and fresh, while they’ve had tough matches against Leeds and Derby. “But we don’t think it’ll make a huge amount of difference and we’ll have to be ready toface a side that possess a real threat.”
Cheers Taff ! Should hopefully be a good game today. With our last two games postponed for different reasons, I'm just hoping that no problems crop up today, such as the Severn Bridge being closed to traffic, or Welsh Labour banning the English from travelling into Wales !!
In another life, tickets to Swansea would have made it to general sale (and I would have been aware) and I'd have gone and we'd win and I'd spend the night at a Travel Lodge in Cardiff and then met up with a lovely, beautiful girl who lives in Cardiff the next day, we'd have gone to church together and spent the day together and it would have been lovely In another life ... ... I suppose I should say something football related. Um, play up Pompey
Swansea City Starting Line Up:- Lawrence Vigouroux, Josh Key, Ben Cabango, Harry Darling, Josh Tymon; Matt Grimes (captain), Joe Allen, Liam Cullen; Ronald, Myles Peart-Harris, Žan Vipotnik. Substitutes:- Jon McLaughlin, Jay Fulton, Jisung Eom, Gonçalo Franco, Florian Bianchini, Nathan Tjoe-A-On, Cyrus Christie, Kyle Naughton, Azeem Abdulai.
Pompey have named an unchanged starting line up who were due to play against Millwall in the postponed game on Wednesday night. No Kusini Yengi in the squad, due to a knee injury picked up playing for Australia in recent internationals. Playing for Swansea today is former Pompey loanee Myles Peart-Harris.
0-1 with a first Pompey goal for Matt Ritchie, from a Josh Murphy cross. Completely against the run of play! 25 minutes.
