Portsmouth v Sheffield Wednesday: Few goals fancied at Fratton | OneFootball

EFL Championship

John Mousinho is demanding an improved performance from Portsmouth

Rock-bottom Portsmouth welcome Sheffield Wednesday to Fratton Park for Friday night football. Betfair writer Mark O'Haire is backing a low-scoring contest on the south coast...

Portsmouth v Sheffield WednesdayFriday October 25, 20:00Live on Sky Sports

Mousinho reads the riot act

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho ripped in his players as they were read the riot act for their weak shortcomings in a worrying 2-0 defeat at Cardiff on Tuesday night. The Pompey chief vowed to address the issues behind the sluggish performance that saw Blues slump back down to the bottom of the Championship as he conducted a 40-minute post-match inquest.

Having started the game woefully, falling two goals down and lucky to make it to the break without even greater damage, Mousinho said: "It was a really, really poor performance. But the biggest disappointment was the slow start. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb - you just can't go about trying to win games like that. The mentality has to be addressed."

To make matters worse, Portsmouth also lost three players to injury during a demoralising first-half with Paddy Lane, Nicolas Schmid and Jordan Williams replaced by Kusini Yengi, Jordan Archer and Terry Devlin. All three are now considered doubtful for the quick turnaround with Mark O'Mahony and Christian Saydee hoping for recalls to the XI.

Rohl demands more from Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday head coach Danny Rohl has called on his players to 'be the hero' after overseeing their latest blank in front of goal in midweek. The Owls shared the spoils with Swansea on Tuesday evening as both sides hit the woodwork in a goalless draw at Hillsborough with the home side lacking the killer instinct to secure top honours.

Rohl remained upbeat post-match, but admitted his players need to do more in the final-third. He said, "It's a little bit of a similar story at the moment. We try, we invest, we run, we win balls, we have good build-up, we attack the spaces. But in the box of the opponent, we are not clinical. We created opportunities but the biggest issue is no shots on-target."

Wednesday welcomed Josh Windass back to the squad after missing the last couple of games with the attacker appearing off the bench. Rohl had made two changes to his starting XI with Svante Ingelsson and Jamal Lowe coming in for Olaf Kobacki and Ike Ugbo, whilst Callum Paterson also returned to the squad. The Owls boss may again shuffle his pack here.

Pompey undervalued at home?

Portsmouth and Sheffield Wednesday have faced off 10 times this century with the duo returning an even W3-D4-L3 share. Pompey are winless in the most recent four of those fixtures (W0-D2-L2) across all venues, with Blues also struggling in their last four Fratton Park games against the Owls (W0-D2-L2), scoring just once in that four-game sample.

Portsmouth 3.20 have picked up a solitary success since winning promotion back to the second-tier (W1-D5-L5) and are still searching for their first home triumph of the term (W0-D3-L2). John Mousinho's men have only managed two goals in those five Fratton Park fixtures are rank second-bottom for both Expected Points (xP) and Expected Goals (xG).

Sheffield Wednesday 2.38 have lost just once in five (W2-D2-L1) yet the Owls have registered just three league victories of their own, and have scored only three goals in their five road trips thus far (W1-D1-L3). The visitors also occupy a bottom-six position in the xP rankings with Wednesday proving particularly toothless when taking to the road.

Unders appeals

Portsmouth's matches have been the Championship's most goal-laden this season, avergaing 3.09 goals per-game - seven of those 11 have covered the Over 2.5 Goals mark yet I feel there's value opposing the market on Friday with Under 2.5 Goals trading at 1.95.

Pompey's home dates are averaging only 1.80 goals per-game - three of those five fixtures have paid-out for Unders backers, and John Mousinho's outfit are avergaing just 1.00 Expected Goals (xG) per-game since promotion. Five of Sheffield Wednesday's 11 outings have already gone Under, whilst the Owls are generating just 0.64 xG in five away days.

Both clubs are operating inside the bottom-six for xG - they've managed to produce an xG value of 1.50 or greater in just four of their combined 22 contests this season - whilst also occupying bottom-six berths for attacking metrics such as shots on-target and Big Chances created, suggesting the market may be overvaluing the likelihood of a goal-heavy game.

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