OPPONENTS: Gillingham Football Club
MANAGER: Peter Taylor (caretaker manager after Ady Pennock got fired two weeks ago)
NICKNAME: The Gills
LEAGUE POSITION: 23rd
THE JOURNEY: Fratton Park to Priestfield Stadium – Just over 100 miles, should do it in 2 hours.
LAST TIME OUT:
* Pompey were dealt a crushing blow after a lacklustre performance against Oldham ended in a deserved victory for the struggling away side. Former Pompey man Eoin Doyle scored a brace in a 2-1 win. Pompey bounced back with a 3-1 win against Crawley in the week, but not many people care about that.
* Gillingham also tasted defeat last weekend after losing 1-0 to Blackburn thanks to a first half strike. They also won midweek in the EFL Trophy courtesy of a 91st minute Max Ehmer goal against Colchester.
POMPEY STATS:
* Pompey are officially the most inconsistent team in England. Their last 7 fixtures read as follows: LWLWLWL
* Brett Pitman won League One Player of the Month, in doing so became the first Pompey player since Gareth Evans in December 2015 to pick up the monthly award. But League One’s top scorer will miss out for a number of weeks, which is worrying considering he has scored 9 of Pompey’s 15 goals this season.
* For the second time in 8 days, Pompey come up against a team without a manager sitting 23rd in the table who are yet to record back-to-back wins in League One this season.
* Chaplin joins Pitman in the injury room, meaning Hawkins and Main will be in contention for a start, whilst Burgess and Thompson will face a late fitness test to see if they can partner Matt Clarke at the back.
* Top Scorer: Pitman (9), Chaplin/Lowe (2)
GILLINGHAM STATS:
* The Gills have had a poor start to their League One campaign having won just 1 of their first 11 fixtures.
* AFC Wimbledon are the only team in the League to have scored fewer goals than Gillingham. The Gills have only scored 6 times this season and have failed to find the back of the net in 7 of their 11 games – including all of their last 3.
* Going back to last season, Gillingham have only won 2 of their last 20 games, both of which came at Priestfield Stadium.
* Sunday’s hosts have conceded more fouls (160) than any other team in League One, and have seen 3 players sent off during this time.
* Top Scorers: Tom Eaves (4), Josh Parker/Sean Clare (1)
HEAD TO HEAD (Courtesy of Pompeyrama.com):
* Pompey have a very positive record against the Gills, winning 18 and drawing 6 of their 30 prior meetings.
* Due to Pompey getting relegated and Gillingham getting promoted, they passed each other without meeting during Pompey’s decent through the football League. The last time these two sides shared a League was during Pompey’s Division One Championship winning season of 2002/2003.
* They won both games against the Gills that season, winning 1-0 at Fratton Park thanks to an Arjan De Zeeuw goal, and also won 3-1 at Gillingham courtesy of goals from Paul Merson, Mark Burchill and Gary O’Neil.
PLAYED FOR US/PLAYED FOR THEM
* Conor Wilkinson – The colossal Irishman spent years looking for a permanent home. Whilst at Bolton he was loaned out 8 times in 4 years, and had a brief spell at Pompey under Paul Cook. He only made one substitute appearance for the Blues, playing just 21 minutes before returning to Bolton.
ONE TO WATCH:
* Lee Martin – Under normal circumstances it’d be Tom Eaves, but he is currently in the midst of a 3 game suspension for being a naughty boy. Instead I’ve gone for Lee Marin. It feels like he’s been around forever, a true stalwart of the game but he’s still only 30 years old. Having started his career at Man Utd, making a handful of appearances in League and Cup, and making the bench occasionally including in a couple of Champions League matches. He has played for 12 different clubs, most notably at Ipswich where he spent 4 seasons, and has been named as skipper for this, his second season at the Gills.
PREDICTION:
* Honestly, who knows with Pompey at the moment. Defensive injury crisis coupled with our two main strikers being crocked would be enough to have a pessimistic view, but it seems every time Pompey have a poor showing like they did against Oldham, they bounce back with a win. Gillingham will play with some freedom under caretaker manager Peter Taylor, and although they have been off form I can see a tight game. 1-0 Pompey, a forgotten Naismith with the only goal.
NEXT 5 GAMES:
Sat 14th Oct – MK Dons (H) – League One
Tue 17th Oct – Doncaster (A) – League One
Sat 21st Oct – Blackburn (A) – League One
Sat 28th Oct – Bradford (H) – League One
Sat 4th Nov – TBA (?) – FA Cup 1st Round
FRIPPY’S TEASER
Can anybody tell me when the last time Portsmouth won a league game that was televised on Sky Sports?
PUP
Written by PompeyFrippy and originally posted in the forum.
Follow @VitalPortsmouth.
2017-18 Prediction League – October
Gillingham (a) – Saturday 7th October 2017 – click here.
MK Dons (h) – Saturday 14th October 2017 – click here.
Doncaster (a) – Tuesday 17th October 2017 – click here.
Blackburn (a) – Saturday 21st October 2017 – click here.
Bradford (h) – Saturday 28th October 2017 – click here.
