After the highs of mid-October’s fine successive wins over West Ham and Tottenham, it’s fair to say that the last three weeks have been hugely disappointing for Stoke City Football club. We threw away a two goal lead to draw at home to local rivals Wolves, and sickeningly lost late at relegation-threatened Hull a week later, with manager Tony Pulis raising fans’ eyebrows, as well as the occasional fist, with the decision to withdraw underused £5 million Turkey striker Tuncay just five minutes after putting him on, the bizarre tactical decision coming as part of a reshuffle brought about by captain Abdoulaye Faye’s 87th minute dismissal, his first in English football. When things aren’t going your way as a football club, it’s always good to just get onto the next game. Unfortunately, we’ve had to wait a full two weeks for this, with the international break meaning our second straight Sunday outing, at home to Portsmouth, comes a full fortnight after that loss at the KC Stadium.

The situation for Paul Hart’s Portsmouth is rather the opposite of Stoke’s. They made an absolutely dire start to the season, ending September pointless and with troubles off the field, resulting from the rapid purchase and sale of the club by Emirati businessman Sulaiman Al-Fahim, as large as those of the ailing side on the pitch, they looked a sure bet for the drop. Things are looking up on the South Coast though, they’ve since won twice in the league, against Wolves and Wigan and, although they still lie bottom of the Premier League, they are just four points away from the relative security of lower mid-table. With their multitude of new signings finally starting to gel, and latest new owner Ali Al-Faraj now in place, they suddenly look a tougher outfit.

The Potters will still go into the match as favourites though, and, as with any game at the Britannia Stadium, have a good chance of coming out with all three points. Pompey lost at Blackburn last time out, so they have lost their recent momentum, and they have shown this season that they are vulnerable at the back, and struggle going forward, having netted just ten times in twelve Premier League games, with four of them coming against Wigan. If our newfound star player Matthew Etherington, along with the likes of former Portsmouth man Ricardo Fuller, produce their best, I am confident we can get the win we need to steady our increasingly wobbly ship.

We will have to do so without Faye though, with the Senegalese centre back serving his one match ban after being sent off for two bookings, meaning German defender Robert Huth will most likely move from right back to his preferred central role alongside Ryan Shawcross, allowing Andy Wilkinson to come into the side on the right. Centre midfielders Salif Diao and Glenn Whelan are doubts for the Potters with calf and groin injuries respective, Whelan having picked up the problem playing in Ireland’s fruitless World Cup play-off in France in midweek, while Mamady Sidibe will miss out with a damaged hamstring. The injuries could mean Rory Delap moves to centre midfield, handing either Liam Lawrence or Tuncay a rare starting place on the right wing, a positive and creative move that would surely cheer the Stoke faithful.

Hart will definitely be without long-term absentees Papa Bouba Diop and Linvoy Primus, both of whom have ankle injuries, while strikers Aruna Dindane and John Utaka, defenders Steve Finnan and Joel Ward and midfielder Hassan Yebda are all doubts and will face late fitness tests.

Key Battles:

Matthew Etherington v Anthony Vanden Borre
Stoke left winger Etherington has been on sublime form recently, netting fine goals in both of his last two games and playing with a newfound confidence and liveliness. He will hope to continue to pull the strings when he comes up against Portsmouth right back Anthony Vanden Borre, with the on-loan Belgian set to be charged with keeping him quiet.

Dean Whitehead v Michael Brown
Stoke’s Whitehead and Portsmouth’s tough-tackling Brown will vie for midfield supremacy. Whitehead has come in for a lot of criticism after some pedestrian performances in recent weeks, so will be keen to give a better account of himself this time out.

Robert Huth v Aruna Dindane
Huth has had little chance to show what he can do in his natural centre back position since joining Stoke from Middlesbrough for £6 million in August, but we get an opportunity on Sunday. He will come up against Ivory Coast striker Aruna Dindane, who joined Pompey from RC Lens in the summer and, after an initial shaky start in the English game appears to have found his feet, netting a hat-trick against Wigan. Pulis was rumoured to be heavily interested in Dindane, so this will be his chance to show Stoke what we missed out on.

Portsmouth’s Star Man: David James

It’s not often that a club’s goalkeeper can be considered to be their star player, but in the case of Portsmouth and James, after the recent multi-million pound exodus of quality players such as, Jermain Defoe, peter Crouch, Glen Johnson and Niko Kranjčar from the club, this may be so. Now aged 39, he has long been considered one of the best custodians in the English game, and promised much at a young age when he broke into the Watford side as a teenager and earned a move to Liverpool in 1992, where he played more than 200 games. A series of blundered hampered is last years at the club, and after James strangely blamed them on playing computer games, which he claimed adversely affected his concentration, he was sold to Aston Villa for £1.8 million in 1999. He spent two years at Villa, before moving on to West Ham, Manchester City and finally Portsmouth, who he joined on a free transfer in the summer of 2006, immediately impressing by keeping clean sheets in each of his first five outings. He has been a reliable performer for Pompey since, and won the club’s player of the year award for both the 2006/07 and 2007/08 campaigns, while he has also been honoured as the Premier League’s highest appearance maker, a feat achieved in February, and is also the Premier League ‘keeper to keep most clean sheets, an accolade confirmed two years before. As the summer transfer window losed in early September, James, eager to impress in a World Cup year, was said to be keen on a move to Tottenham, but it never came to fruition. Despite has advancing years, James, if he can prove his fitness over the course of this season, is expected to stake a strong claim to the England number one shirt for South Africa next summer, and has already won 48 caps for his country, the first coming in 1997.

My Prediction:

Stoke City 2-0 Portsmouth - I foresee a good home win for the Potters, with another goal coming from Etherington and James Beattie also getting his name on the scoresheet.

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