OPPONENTS: Fleetwood Town Football Club
MANAGER: Uwe Rosler
NICKNAME: The Trawlermen or The Fishermen
LEAGUE POSITION: 7th
THE JOURNEY: Highbury Stadium to Fratton Park – Best part of 300 miles, at least 5 hours on the road.
LAST TIME OUT:
* Pompey couldn’t follow up on their Wimbledon win against Northampton on a windy Tuesday evening. Matty Kennedy opened his account but it wasn’t enough as Pompey fell to a 3-1 defeat.
* Fleetwood threw away a 2 goal lead at home to Bury, only to fight back and win 3-2. Jordy Hiwula got a first half double before Ashley Hunter scored the winner. Bury could have salvaged a point but blazed a 96th minute penalty over the bar.
POMPEY STATS:
* Pompey currently sit 13th after collecting 8 points from the opening 7 games, 5 points off the play-offs and 4 points of the relegation zone.
* After picking up 1 point from their last 2 home games, Pompey run the risk of going 3 home games without a win – something that hasn’t happened since October 2015.
* Pompey’s failure to score against Rotherham at Fratton was the first time Pompey failed to net at home since the infamous defeat to Crewe in March.
* Since the start of the 2016/17 season, Pompey have won 15 penalties. Of those 15, 9 have come at Fratton Park and after a string of 6 consecutive misses they have converted their last 5 (3 from Evans and 2 from Pitman).
* Top Scorer: Pitman (4), Chaplin (2), Kennedy (1)
FLEETWOOD STATS:
* Fleetwood have followed on from last season’s 4th place finish by making a great start to this season, winning 4 and drawing 1 of their six games.
* Fleetwood have only played away from home twice so far this campaign, winning once and losing once.
* The Trawlermen have the best shots-to-goals ratio in the League. They have only managed 21 shots all season (less than Pompey’s 26) and 11 of these have found the net (0.52 goals per shot)
* Each of the last 3 games Fleetwood games have all seen at least 4 goals scored.
* Top Scorers: Devante Cole (4), Jordy Hiwula (3), Ashley Hunter & Conor McAleny (2)
HEAD TO HEAD (Courtesy of Pompeyrama.com):
* Pompey and Fleetwood have only ever met twice in their history, with both meetings happening in the 2013/14 League Two season.
* Fleetwood won the last meeting at Highbury 3-1, with Jed Wallace netting a consolation for Pompey.
* The previous meeting at Fratton also ended in victory to the Trawlermen, with a Sonny Bradley own goal being the only goal of the game
PLAYED FOR US/PLAYED FOR THEM/SCUMMER WATCH
* Danny Rose – For the second time this week, Danny Rose has the chance to line-up against and old club. He didn’t feature against Northampton, but after 4 years at Newport he signed for Fleetwood but only featured 10 times for them in the Conference.
* Gareth Evans – One of Pompey’s longest serving players is expected to line up against the club we signed him from. In total he played 106 games in League Two and League One before moving to Pompey.
ONE TO WATCH:
Devante Cole – Joined Man City at 8 years old and stayed there for 12 years, before making his name in the lower leagues. Currently playing his 3rd season for Fleetwood, he’s a pacy and strong striker who has represented England at 4 different levels and will be a threat on Saturday.
PREDICTION:
* Both teams are playing their 3rd game in 7 days, with Pompey back at home after away games. KJ’s deadline day signings have now had 3 games to gel and although there were mistakes defensively on Tuesday there were plenty of signs in the second half that we’re starting to play as a unit. Pompey will get back to winning ways with a 3-2 victory thanks to goals from Pitman, Hawkins and May.
NEXT 5 GAMES:
Sat 23rd Sep – Scunnythorpe (A) – League One
Tue 26th Sep – Bristol Rovers (H) – League One
Sat 30th Sep – Oldham (H) – League One
Tue 3rd Oct – Crawley (H) – EFL Trophy
Sun 8th Oct – Gillingham (A) – League One
PUP
Written by PompeyFrippy and originally posted in the forum.
Follow @VitalPortsmouth.
2017-18 Prediction League – September
Fleetwood (h) – Saturday 16th September 2017 – click here.
Scunthorpe (a) – Saturday 23rd September 2017 – click here.
Bristol Rovers (h) – Tuesday 26th September 2017 – click here.
Oldham (h) – Saturday 30th September 2017 – click here.
