Injuries bite as Portsmouth boss admits there will be no respite at Stoke City
Portsmouth visit Stoke City this evening looking for their first win of the season, but with several players sidelined through injury.
Promoted Pompey go into the bet365 Stadium clash (7.45pm kick-off) two points and two places worse off than their hosts, but remain second-from-bottom despite holding Sheffield United to a goalless draw last weekend.
That result ended a run of three successive defeats, but Portsmouth boss John Mousinho is aware that the victories must soon start flowing if they are to avoid a rapid return to League One.
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Stoke, meanwhile, have their own issues. They are on a run of three successive defeats spanning the sacking of Steven Schumacher and the arrival of new head coach Narcis Pelach, the latest being a 2-0 loss at Middlesbrough on Saturday.
Mousinho confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Conor Shaughnessy will miss the game after a recurrence of the calf issue that has plagued him for the last month.
The central defender had hoped to return against the Blades, but pulled up in the warm-up and is now unlikely to return until after the international break. Mousinho said: “He’s going for another scan but it’s a recurrence of the same injury. He won’t play this week."
Tom McIntyre partnered Regan Poole in defence against Sheffield United and they are likely to get the nod at Stoke too.
Longer term casualties include deadline-day signing Ibane Bowat, another defender, who is likely to miss the remainder of the season after tearing a patellar tendon on the training ground.
Colby Bishop remains sidelined after undergoing heart surgery in pre-season, while fellow forward Callum Lang has a groin injury picked up in the defeat to Burnley with no return date set.
A similar problem has sidelined Aussie striker Kusini Yengi, who was hurt warming up to face West Brom last month. He's missed the last three games and won't play against Stoke.
Elsewhere, Connor Ogilvie has recovered from flu to put himself in the frame for a potential recall at Stoke, but faces a battle to oust Jacob Farrell, who impressed Mousinho when deputising at left-back against the Blades at Fratton Park.
Portsmouth have faced six of the top eight, plus Luton, so far this season, so will be hoping for some respite against a struggling Stoke side.
Not that Mousinho is taking anything for granted. He told The News: "We always knew it was going to be a difficult patch and a difficult spell. People might now say the fixture list looks different, but every game in the Championship is really, really difficult. Stoke will be right at it, there will be no favours given by them.
"I think we’ve done okay so far, there have been some things I’ve been pleased with. What is frustrating is we’ve been in most of the games, we have competed, but haven’t come away with as much as we should have. Even if you look at Leeds and Middlesbrough, we are winning going into injury time and came away with draws. We are drawing with Burnley going into injury time and came away with a loss.
"The performances have been okay in patches, but we need to defend better, we need to score a lot more. The best thing about the side at the moment is they have improved game-on-game over the last three games.
"It always made me chuckle when people talked about the first seven fixtures being really tough and our eighth being Stoke away. Well, in my book, that is right up there with difficult fixtures in the Championship calendar."