OPPONENTS: Rochdale Association Football Club
MANAGER: Keith Hill
NICKNAME: The Dale
LEAGUE POSITION: Joint 1st (or 18th in alphabetical order)
THE JOURNEY: Spotland Stadium to Fratton Park – over 500 miles round trip, 9 hours there and back.
LAST TIME OUT:
* It’s been exactly 3 months between this game and Portsmouth’s last game. For those that need reminding, it was a 6-1 win at Fratton over Cheltenham Town thanks to goals from Bennett, Lowe, a brace from Naismith, a penalty from Evans and an own goal. Results elsewhere meant that Portsmouth had won League Two in the most unlikely of circumstances, despite only being top for less than half an hour all season.
* Rochdale’s final League One game last season saw them have an outside chance of making the playoffs, but results did not go there way elsewhere. Even if they had, their 1-1 draw at home to Bradford would have seen them fail to capitalise, finishing the season in 9th place.
POMPEY STATS:
* Pompey are looking to extend their fantastic run in competitive games, having won 10 and drawn 1 of their last 12, including winning the last 4.
* In pre-season Portsmouth won 6 out of their 7 games, with a 2-1 defeat to Premier League Bournemouth the only blemish on this record, scoring 28 goals in this time.
* Of the 14 players that featured in Pompey’s final game of League Two, 10 are still at the club. Stevens was sold to Sheffield United (where he has scored 3 times in pre-season playing in a more advanced winger role), Michael Doyle has gone to Coventry, Forde returned to Millwall before being sold to Cambridge and Stanley Aborah was released and is currently still a free agent.
* The Blues have bolstered their squad with the acquisitions of Nathan Thompson (Centre Back – Swindon), Luke McGee (Goalkeeper – Tottenham), Brett Pitman (Striker – Ipswich) and have loaned in Tareiq Holmes-Dennis (Left Back) from Huddersfield.
* Top Scorers from Pre-Season: Kabamba (7), Chapman/Pitman (4) Main/Close (3)
ROCHDALE STATS:
* Rochdale had a very indifferent season during the 2016/17 campaign. They started with 7 games without a win which left them bottom of the league, but by the end of December they were up to 4th after 14 wins in 18 games. But another slump in form at the beginning of 2017 saw them go another 10 games without a win and ultimately they stabilised before finishing 9th, 4 points off a play-off place.
* The Dale won 4 of their pre-season games, beating AFC Fylde, Chorley, Middlesbrough and Morecambe without conceding a single goal. They were defeated twice by Halifax Town and Barnsley without scoring a single goal.
* As with Pompey, Rochdale have lost 4 members of the team that featured in the final game of last season. Ex-Pompey winger Nathanial Mendez-Laing has gone to Cardiff, ‘keeper Conrad Logan has gone to Mansfield, Matty Lund has gone to Burton and fellow midfielder Donal McDermott has joined Swindon
* They have also added to their squad with Reece Brown (brother of Wes) snapped up from Bury and young South African left-back Kgosi Ntlhe joining from Stevenage. Brad Inman has alos been brought in on loan from Peterborough to bolster the midfield.
* Top Scorers from Pre-Season: Steven Davies & (trialist) Jack Redshaw (3), Oliver Rathbone (1)
HEAD TO HEAD (Courtesy of PompeyRama.com) :
* Pompey and Rochdale have met 6 times in their history, with The Blues currently boasting 4 wins to Rochdale’s 1, with one draw in 1979.
* The two sides have only shared a division once in the last 37 years which occurred during Portsmouth’s first season in League Two. Both teams won their home games 3-0, Rochdale went on to win automatic promotion and Pompey finished 13th.
* The last meeting at Fratton Park will be remembered as the game where Bondz N’Gala scored his first goal in 2 years. He only had to wait 14 minutes for his next goal, with Jed Wallace opening the scoring in a 3-0 win.
ONE TO WATCH:
* Ian Henderson – As sure as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, I’ve picked out a goalscorer as my one to watch. The 32 year old netted 19 times in all competitions last season, chipping in with 9 assists as well. He isn’t the tallest but is great at finding a yard to get a shot away and can finish with either foot.
PREDICTION:
* I’ve made it clear that I’m not as optimistic as some fans about our prospects for the new season, and especially feel our pre-season title odds of 9/1 are greatly massively overestimating our chances. However, managing to retain the likes of Clarke, Burgess, Chaplin, Naismith and Bennett was majorly important, and the addition of Pitman could be the key to our season, I feel we have a chance of securing a play-off spot. Clarke will be a big miss in the first month of the season, but even with him missing I’m looking at winning this one 3-2 with goals from Pitman, Chaplin and Naismith.
NEXT 5 GAMES:
Tues 08 Aug – Cardiff City (A) – League Cup R1
Sat 12 Aug – Oxford United (A) – League One
Sat 19 Aug – Walsall (H)- League One
Sat 26 Aug – Wigan Athletic (A) – League One
Tues 29 Aug – Fulham U21s (H) – Checkatrade Trophy
PUP
Written by PompeyFrippy and originally posted in the forum.
The views within this article are the views of the individual who wrote and submitted this piece, sometimes solely theirs. They are not necessarily shared by the Vital Pompey Site Journalists.
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