Defeat is hard to take. A heavy defeat at home against a team in bad form is even harder to take. How do you come back from that? It’ll be up to Bonner and the lads to show us their resilience on Saturday against another decent side in Portsmouth. Is another tonking on the cards? Let’s find out.
It’s not like Bonner to drop players after a bad game so we’re not expecting big changes from the side that was beat by Lincoln. He’ll almost certainly switch the formation back to one up front, putting an extra man in midfield, likely to be James Brophy at the expense of Sam Smith. The other option for him in the middle is to bring in Adam May, who missed the Lincoln game for tactical reasons, lining him up alongside Paul Digby to bring a bit more dynamism to the midfield, at the expense of Liam O’Neil’s calming presence.
With the exception of Greg Taylor everyone is fit, but we think Bonner will keep faith with the back four, the only potential change would be bringing in Harrison Dunk for Jack Iredale.
Expected U’s Line-Up: Mitov, Williams, Jones, Masterson, Iredale, Digby, O’Neil, Brophy, Tracey, Hoolahan, Ironside
Who’s Their Player To Watch? Portsmouth have got a massive squad, packed with quality. When we spoke to the PO4 Podcast in the latest UTAS Pod they mentioned Marcus Harness as a potential danger man, but there’s the likes of Ryan Tunnicliffe and Wales international Joe Morrell to be aware of too.
Who’s In The Dugout? Press darling Danny Cowley, did pretty well at Braintree and then Lincoln to get them out of non-league, but didn’t pull up any trees at Huddersfield. Now at Portsmouth, where once again he is assisted by his brother Nicky.
What’s Their Recent Form Like? Haven’t won in three, but won their first three games.
Any Ex-United Players? Nah
Last Time Out: Portsmouth 2-1 U’s, April 22 2017
Portsmouth could have had four or five, but only scored twice before Luke Berry struck a sweet free kick to reduce the deficit
From The Archive: U’s 2-6 Portsmouth, February 21, 2015
The last time we beat Portsmouth Nottingham Forest were on their way to becoming Champions of England and Ipswich were about to win the FA Cup. The predicament of those two sides now tells you a lot about just how long ago that was. Surprisingly no TV footage of that exists, so here’s some ‘highlights’ of Portsmouth absolutely pumping us at the Abbey during our first season back in the league.
Under The Abbey Stand 
Leave a Reply