Accrington are hopeful goalkeeper Ross Etheridge will face Portsmouth despite his dismissal at the weekend. Etheridge was sent off on Saturday in Stanley's draw with AFC Wimbledon for handling outside of his area, but John Coleman's side are appealing the decision. Portsmouth manager Paul Cook plans to freshen up his side for the long trip north. Nine-goal midfielder Conor Chaplin was an unused substitute for Saturday's win at Stevenage after a minor injury worry in the previous match but could come back into contention. Cook has a number of attacking options with striker Adam McGurk not making the squad for the last three matches. Fellow forward Michael Smith came off the bench at the weekend after returning from injury to give Cook another alternative.
Number Crunchers' Corner: Stanley: Start 4th Highest achievable - stay 4th Lowest could fall - 6th Form - W2 D3 L1 - 12th Home - W4 D2 L0 - 3rd Pompey: Start 5th Highest achievable - 4th Lowest could fall - 6th Form - W3 D2 L1 - =4th Away - W1 D3 L2 - 15th Head to Head: 6 previous meetings [5 in the league] Accrington 1 Pompey 2 Draws 3 At Accrington: 2 previous meetings - both draws Last season: 7/3/15 Stanley 1-1 Pompey This season's reverse fixture 5/9/15 Pompey 0-0 Stanle
Seeing as there are recent past connections with Stanley- in Paul Cook, Leam Richardson & Kal Naismith - surely we should be up for this one !!
Blimey, just in, and can't believe we are 3-0 up at half time Commentators on Express FM are saying we have been totally in control in the first half, and Michael Doyle scored the third goal in the 43rd minute with an absolute cracker from 35 yards out. We have had 61% possession, and 7 shots with 4 on target. Kyle Bennett scored the first goal in the 22nd minute, with an own goal scored by Pearson in the 36th minute, following a cross from Ben Davies.
Pompey side tonight is:- 27 Ryan Fulton 2 Ben Davies 6 Christian Burgess 4 Adam Webster 3 Enda Stevens 29 Danny Hollands 8 Michael Doyle 26 Gareth Evans 11 Gary Roberts 23 Kyle Bennett 21 Michael Smith Substitutes 10 Marc McNulty 14 Kal Naismith 15 Adam Barton 17 Kieron Freeman 19 Conor Chaplin 20 Matt Clarke 35 Alex Bass Referee: Chris Sarginson
Apparently there was a huge argument before kick off, with Paul Cook absolutely furious with the Accrington management, for naming Romy Bocco on the subs bench, where apparently there was a "Gentleman's Agreement" that Accies would not use him against Pompey, due to the fact that we let him go there on a free transfer during the transfer window.
Stanley brought on Brown for Conneely at half time, and have now replaced McConville with Shaw, and now Romy Boco (tut tut) for Mingoia.
Tonight's attendance is a paltry 1,841, of which 584 are Pompey fans. Bearing in mind this is an important game - 4th versus 5th in the table - and the home team's fans can't be bothered to attend !!
Gary Roberts replaced by Kal Naismith in the 75th minute. He has had two chances in a minute since coming on.
Final whistle, and it's 3-1 to Pompey. Great win. 3 more points. Two away wins on the trot. Newport County who come to Fratton Park this coming Saturday are currently 3-0 down at home to Barnet.
Right you can stop making a habit of this winning lark and get back to normal with the draws now. The league looks interesting now given who still has to play who in it. Will be an interesting finish to the season me thinks. Can't see how a team can let a player go to another club who are then paying all of the wages etc and then dictate if he plays or not even if it's against them. It's not as if Pompey paid any money to get him in the first place and then lost out by having to let him go for nothing. We loaned a player to another club a few years back when in the Championship who played him against us with our Chairman's blessing. He scored in a 1 - 0 loss for us in the season we got relegated. Now that's annoying.....
Only 6 points behind Plymouth and Oxford now. Hopefully, we have started a good run of form, and can keep it going until the end of the season. Can't wait until Saturday !!
