Play up Pompey

4Jan 2013

The struggling Portsmouth have been written off by the world and his wife heading into their match with Walsall this evening, but in a week of upsets, Paul Robinson thinks we could be in for one more.

Walsall have gotten their act together in the last fortnight and won three of their last four to move them up to 16th in League One, easing their relegation worries. Dean Smith's side beat both Colchester and Stevenage 1-0 at home, and while they lost to Leyton Orient on the road, they did pick up an impressive 4-2 win at MK Dons on Boxing Day.

I'm not one to get carried away with a handful of results though and if we look further back through their form we will see that The Saddlers have struggled this season, as they did the year before. Before those back to back victories at the Bescot Stadium, Walsall had gone seven without a win, losing four of them. They didn't keep a clean sheet in that period and conceded more than once in six of the seven.

Portsmouth are living a nightmare at present and have been for the past few seasons. Financial woes have crippled them on and off the pitch and the 2008 FA Cup winners are now in a battle to stay in the third tier of English football. They did have a mini revival for a short while under Michael Appleton, but since he left for pastures new, Guy Whittingham has failed to record a victory.

Pompey have lost 10 of their last 13 in all competitions and they were thumped 5-0 at Swindon on Tuesday. One positive though is that it was 0-0 till the hour mark in that match and of the other nine defeats, seven of them were by just a single goal. Away from Fratton Park, Portsmouth have avoided losing in two of their last three, and in six out of 12 over the course of the League One season thus far.

QPR's win at Chelsea proves that anything can happen in football and while Walsall are in a rich vein of form, they aren't that good a side and Portsmouth have been unlucky in a few of their defeats recently. At around the 1.91 mark, I have to make Walsall my lay of the day.

Recommended Bet

Lay Walsall v Portsmouth @ 1.91