Premiership - Portsmouth v Sunderland

9 February 2010

Preview By Tipster Jumbo (New Zealand)

This is a huge match for Portsmouth here and nothing but a win will do for them, they have received good fan support throughout this time of disaster and now a match against Sunderland would be the perfect time to get up and win a game to at least show that the fight is still evident amongst the players and the Fans cheers are not in vain.

Portsmouth should feel embarrassed as they enter this game after their 5-0 Ka- Thumping at the hands of United and even more by themselves with 3 OG’s, they started well and u until a few minutes from half time they were in that match, I did say were as the rest of the match was all a Red Blur for the Pompey players as United ran rampant and Portsmouth did all they could to help the Red Devils to another big win, Portsmouth’s form I think has not been that bad and to write them off here could be a mistake, the Players will surely be embarrassed at last weekends result and should come out and try and win this game, they have won 2 of their last 4 home matches and have only lost once in their last 5 at home, Including a 2-1 FA Cup win over this very side they face today, Personal wise and Utaka, Mokoena, Smith, Hreidarsson, Diop and Brown are all out.

Sunderland may of drawn with Wigan in their last match but that has done little to hide the fact that the Black Cats are now win less in their last 11 fixtures and are coming off two matches at home against Stoke and Wigan that they really should of won, Odds might be good for them here but they have lost 4 of their last 5 away matches even though scoring goals and on the season the Black Cats have won only 1 of their 12 away fixtures while drawing only 2 and losing the other 9 in some lop sided scorelines, Personal wise and Henderson was injured against Wigan and is now gone for the rest of the season, Malbranque and Zenden are both back into the side but Mensah, Richardson and Ferdinand are all still missing in action.

Recent Results: Played 5, Portsmouth 3, Sunderland 1, Drawn 1……Round 16, 12-Dec-2009 at Sunderland : Sunderland vs Portsmouth 1 - 1……Round 37, 18-May-2009 at Portsmouth : Portsmouth vs Sunderland 3 - 1……Round 12, 08-Nov-2008 at Sunderland : Sunderland vs Portsmouth 1 - 2……Round 27, 23-Feb-2008 at Portsmouth : Portsmouth vs Sunderland 1 - 0……Round 22, 13-Jan-2008 at Sunderland : Sunderland vs Portsmouth 2 – 0

Portsmouth really need to show up here after last weeks result and I’m going to say that they will, that loss was worse than embarrassing and even players sitting at the bottom of the table have pride in them and now after 3 straight away losses they get to play at home against a team who week by week are losing their way in Sunderland.

On Paper the Black Cats look the better side but I’m more than willing to go against that and take Portsmouth to get up here and restore what little prides they have left at home…Good Luck.