Bolton Wanderers v Portsmouth - Preview

I'm sat here with nothing better to do with my day, so I thought I'd do a preview for tomorrow's important game.

I will start with Bolton Wanderers.

Bolton will hand fitness tests to Jay-Jay Okocha and Abdoulaye Faye. Okocha was forced to miss the victory at Manchester City with an ankle injury, while Faye (a different Faye to the useless and lazy one we managed to sell to Newcastle last season) picked up a slight groin strain at Eastlands and will also face a late check.

Wanderers are definitely without Ivan Campo who broke his foot in training and is facing two months on the sidelines, while Fabrice Fernandes (scummer! scummer!) has a slight hamstring strain and may be forced sit out the game. Hidetoshi Nakata, Ricardo Gardner and Nicky Hunt are all pushing for a recall to the first team.

Now on to the team well are all interested in.

We are definitely without Serbian midfielder Zvonimir Vukic who (as reported on here yesterday) has picked up an ankle injury and is facing at least two weeks on the sidelines.

Lomana Lua Lua has not trained all week following a shoulder injury but boss Alain Perrin says he will play if he passes a late fitness test. I also heard he has been suffering with a Virus all week, which could also keep him out of the game.

Linvoy Primus (knee) and Aliou Cisse (ankle) are the other casualties but Laurent Robert is certain to return after being rested at The Priestfield Stadium.

That is the official news – now onto my views for tomorrow.

This is a big game for Alain Perrin and the players. The performance and result against Gillingham was not acceptable and everyone at the club knows it. The team that will start on Saturday will be made up from the majority of placers that started the midweek game. Let's hope we get a positive reaction from them.

Collins Mbesuma scored his first goal for Pompey in the reserve game on Wednesday. Hopefully he has now done enough for at least a place on the bench. John Viafara who also scored in that reserve game will be looking to regain his first team place from either Salif Diao or Richard Hughes.

My starting XI and substitutes bench for the game tomorrow is:

Ashdown
Priske - O'Brien - Stefanovic - Vignal
O'Neil - Diao - Viafara - Robert
Lua Lua - Silva

Subs: Westerveld, Mbesuma, Todorov, Hughes, Taylor