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The Bristol Rovers Low Down

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OPPONENTS: Bristol Rovers Football Club
MANAGER: Darrell Clarke
NICKNAME: The Pirates
LEAGUE POSITION: 14th

THE JOURNEY: Memorial Stadium to Fratton Park – 120 miles and just over 2 hours by road, or jump on a direct train which takes 2 hours 21 minutes.

LAST TIME OUT:
* Pompey were unable to breach the stern Scunny defence, and were made to pay for costly misses as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Glanford Park
* Bristol Rovers came from a goal down to get 3 goals and 3 points at home to Blackpool. Late goals from Ryan Sweeney and Ellis Harrison won the game after Billy Bodin got the Pirates back in the game before half time.

POMPEY STATS:
* Pompey sit 15th in League One after a start that has lacked consistency. In fact, Pompey have not won OR lost more than 1 game on the bounce in League One.
* Portsmouth prepare for a run of fixtures which sees them play 7 games in 25 days, with 4 of the next 5 in all competitions being played at Fratton Park.
* Only Doncaster (78) have committed less fouls this season than Pompey (82) this season.
* The Blues are yet to concede a penalty in League One. In fact, it has been 1 year and 1 day since Pompey last conceded a penalty, which was against Barnet. Pompey went on to win that game 5-1.
* Top Scorer: Pitman (6), Chaplin/Lowe (2)

BRISTOL ROVERS STATS:
* Rovers are one of only two teams in League One not to draw a game this season, having won 4 and lost 5 of their opening games.
* Away from home they have only won once in four attempts, a 3-2 win against struggling Bury.
* Bristol Rovers games have seen more goals than any other team in League One – 34 goals in 9 games – an average of 3.78 per game. All 8 of Rovers’ last games have had over 2.5 goals.
* Rovers came from behind to beat Blackpool on Saturday, something they had failed to do since December 2016 when they beat Bury 4-2 at home.
* Top Scorers: Billy Bodin (5), Rory Gaffney (3) Ryan Sweeney & Ellis Harrison (2)

HEAD TO HEAD (Courtesy of Pompeyrama.com):
* Pompey and the Pirates have had 38 meetings in the last century, with the Hampshire Blues coming out on top 20 times to Rovers’ 10 – with the other 8 ending in a draw.
* The two sides met 4 times in League Two and once in the Checkatrade trophy in recent times, with Pompey winning 4 and losing once – there has been no draws between the two sides in any of the last 15 meetings.
* The last time the two sides met at Fratton in the League was in February 2016 when Portsmouth cruised to a 3-1 victory thanks to goals from Evans, Smith and McNulty. Rovers had the last laugh though by securing an automatic promotion slot at the end of the season.

PLAYED FOR US/PLAYED FOR THEM/SCUMMER WATCH
* Joe Partington – Born in Pompey, the 27 year old spent most of his childhood years in the Pompey Academy. He left for Bournemouth at aged 16 and went on to represent Bournemouth for 8 years and Eastleigh for a few before moving to Bristol at the start of this year.

ONE TO WATCH:
* Billy Bodin – Some may remember his old man, Paul, who was left-back for Swindon (among others) and played 23 times for Wales, but Billy is starting to carve out a legacy all of his own. After a stop start few years, he finally nailed down a starting position after signing for Rovers. Playing as a center forward or on the right, he has scored 33 since signing 2 years ago, including 7 already this campaign.

PREDICTION:
* With Pompey as predictable as a grapefruit’s squirt at the moment, it’s hard to know what Pompey will turn up here. I feel Saturday’s result against Scunny was one that many of us might have expected, and this game should be one we can bounce back for. I’m hoping for a continuation on the clinical finishing we saw against Fleetwood and a 3-1 win thanks to goals from Pitman, Lowe and O’Keefe.

NEXT 5 GAMES:
Sat 30th Sep – Oldham (H) – League One
Tue 3rd Oct – Crawley (H) – EFL Trophy
Sun 8th Oct – Gillingham (A) – League One
Sat 14th Oct – MK Dons (H) – League One
Tue 17th Oct – Doncaster (A) – League One

PUP

Written by PompeyFrippy and originally posted in the forum.

Follow @VitalPortsmouth.

2017-18 Prediction League – September
Bristol Rovers (h) – Tuesday 26th September 2017 – click here.
Oldham (h) – Saturday 30th September 2017 – click here.

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