Stoke City v Portsmouth: Hart looking to use his magic to shoot down the Potters

Nobody likes playing Stoke City, nobody that is apart from Portsmouth. Paul Hart’s men may be rooted to the foot of the table and enter the game on the back of a 3-1 defeat at Blackburn, but you have to go back 11 years for the last time Stoke triumphed over their south coast counterparts. Could Hart work his magic and swap places with Wolves at the bottom?

Stoke City stunned everyone by beating Spurs at the Lane three games ago but they’ve surprised even more pundits by subsequently failing to beat neighbours Wolves and losing to Hull City. The Potters led in both games but let the points slip late on. Tony Pulis, who was in charge at Portsmouth in 2000, will be hoping his players have learned from their mistakes.

Portsmouth thrashed Stoke 4-0 in the league cup last month and followed it up with another 4-0 hammering at home against Wigan. Unfortunately they went down 3-1 at Blackburn Rovers last time out, but Hart will be looking for a positive response from his players this afternoon. However, the majority of the Panel believes there will only be one winner today and they are the boys in red and white.

Stoke City v Portsmouth; Kick Off 4pm 22 Nov 2009

Prediction Panel
Our panel contains both Squarefootball writers and readers, the writers are marked: (sqf).

Dave Blackburn : 2 - 0
Chris Cox : 2 – 0
Graham Enwright : 2 - 0
Sue Gardener : TBC
Chris Goodwin : 2 - 1
Paul Grech (sqf) : TBC
Colin Illingworth (sqf) : 2 - 1
Hugh Larkin (sqf) : TBC
Peter Lee : 2 - 0
Don McMahon : 2 - 1
Antony Melvin (sqf) : 2 - 1
Paul O'Meara (sqf) : 1 - 0
Dave Nash : 1 - 0
Stephen Orford (sqf) : TBC
Tony Ratton : 2 - 0
Peter Rendle : 1 - 1
Dan Taylor : 2 - 1
Andy Wakeman : 2 - 2
Isaac Williams : TBC
Mark Williams : 2 - 0

Panel Verdict

It looks as though Stoke will be too strong for Paul Hart’s men.

Home: 13; Draw: 2; Away: 0; TBC: 5.

* 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!