Chris Gadsby continues his look at the teams in this seasons Sky Bet League 2.
Full Name:Portsmouth Football Club
Nickname: Pompey
Founded: 1898
Ground: Fratton Park (Capacity 21,176)
Record against County: Played 4, Won 1, Drawn 0, Lost 3, Goals For 2, Goals Against 5
Last Season: 16th – Portsmouth were another side who struggled away from home last season, only winning three times all campaign at Oxford, Cambridge and Mansfield. They only picked up three points against teams in the top half on their travels throughout the entire season, leaving them in 19th place in the away table. They also struggled to close games out conceding 19 goals in the final half an hour of matches despite having the 12th best defence in the league. They also struggled in attack scoring an average of 1.1 goals per game, although this was higher than County. They did well at home winning 11 and drawing 6 of their games at Fratton Park and they also kept eight clean sheets on the South coast.
Key Player: Gary Roberts – the new singing for Pompey and a previous winner of League 2 player’s player of the year travels down to the South coast on the back of two seasons in Chesterfield where his eight goals helped the Spireites reach the League 1 playoffs. The 31 year old has had spells at Huddersfield, Crewe, Ipswich and Accrington Stanely in his career and hopes that he can find goal scoring form when he dons the blue white and red of Portsmouth next week.
Fixtures: October 17th (H) March 12th (A)
Portsmouth have made a lot of changes in personnel over the summer in much the same way as Newport themselves have. They appear to have put together a strong side to go into the regular season with and their fans will be hoping for a strong start to build the confidence around the club that they could have a strong year. As many County fans will know however the season is a long one and contains many ups and downs, but Pompey have their eyes on promotion and whilst an automatic place will be very difficult to achieve with the strength of the division, one of the playoff places may well be occupied by the South coast side come May.Prediction: