Wigan Athletic vs Portsmouth: Nothing to play for #1
Three games with nothing to play for but pride and a bit of place money today, including Wigan Athletic vs Portsmouth. Both of these teams lost important players in January and will lose more in the summer; and both sides will now finish between 12th and 15th - so these are well matched teams about to enter a period of change.
Wigan was in prime position to bag seventh place a couple of months ago, but once safety was achieved the team seemed to switch off - only coming to life for the big games like Arsenal and Manchester United. The losses of Palacios and Heskey in January have contributed to the decline and Wigan could be looking forward to Europa League football but for financial planning. Steve Bruce has done well without any kind of transfer budget to leave more expensive teams (like Pompey, for example) in his wake - the planning for next season starts here, in the late spring sunshine.
Portsmouth is in better form than Wigan and has moved to just a point behind the Lancashire club; the loss of Defoe in January could well seem like a spring shower compared to the summer when half the first team could be on its way as last season's FA Cup winners try to slash costs. With that in mind there may well be a few players looking to avoid injury today to ensure a smooth transfer in a couple of weeks time.
Wigan Athletic vs Portsmouth; Kick Off 4:00pm 24 May 2009
Prediction Panel
Our panel contains both Squarefootball writers and readers, the writers are marked: (sqf).
Tony Bellew : 1 - 1
Dave Blackburn : 0 - 0
Sue Gardener : 2 - 3
Chris Goodwin : 1 - 1
Paul Grech (sqf) : 1 - 1
Colin Illingworth (sqf) : 1 - 1
Hugh Larkin (sqf) : TBC - TBC
Peter Lee : 1 - 0
Don McMahon : 0 - 0
Antony Melvin (sqf) : 1 - 0
Stephen Orford (sqf) : 1 - 0
Tony Ratton : 0 - 0
Peter Rendle : 1 - 2
Dan Taylor : 1 - 1
Bill Urban (sqf) : TBC - TBC
Andy Wakeman : 2 - 0
Isaac Williams : 2 - 1
Mark Williams : 0 - 0
Panel Verdict
Nothing to see here, the panel is expecting a low-scoring draw.
Home: 5; Draw: 9; Away: 2; TBC: 2.
* Do we have it right, or do you know better? Please don't bother with derisory comments on the predictions after the match - unless you also pulled us up before it!
