Back
Aron Wright - February 17, 2019
Portsmouth vs Bristol Rovers
England League 1
Date: Tuesday, 19 February 2019
Kick-off at 19:45 UK/ 20:45 CET
Venue: Fratton Park (Portsmouth).
Portsmouth’s automatic promotion dreams hit with a bitter blow after they dropped points in six consecutive games.
Pompey are coming in to this match with three stalemates on the bounce and their 6 match win-less streak is completed with previous three games ending in defeats.
Yet, Portsmouth sit at third on the log, falling behind second placed Barnsley by 5 points.
Meantime, Bristol Rovers moved out of relegation zone with a hard fought draw against Shrewsbury.
The Pirates are an improved side since Graham Coughlan took over in December. The Irish coach helped the team pick up 6 wins and 4 draws from 12 matches in charge while losing twice.
One may assume, Bristol Rovers are on right patch to avoid relegation this season.
Portsmouth won 6 of the last 7 meetings with Bristol Rovers and lost the other one.
Six of their last 7 h2h meetings saw over 2.5 goals, 5 games saw btts.
At home, Portsmouth won all the previous 4 meetings with the Rovers, scoring 3 goals in three games.
This is a fixture usually dominated by Portsmouth, however, I have little confidence in backing them to do the same here. It is true that Pompey did relative well at home this season, but the visiting Rovers are a team drawing plaudits with some brilliant displays on the road.
Truth to be told, Portsmouth’s confidence is not at the very best after one too many stalemates in a short span of time. This is one good reason for us to believe the visitors have a good chance of nicking a point here for the first time in 5 years.
Also, when combining the above facts with the h2h stats of the past 5 years, there are strong indicators of this match being a high scoring one, just as in 6 of their most recent 8 meetings.
Both teams to Score @ 10/11 (1.95)
Over 2.5 goals @ 12/11 (2.05).
