McKenna: Not Many Tougher Games Than Portsmouth Away
Monday, 2nd Feb 2026 12:00
Town travel to Portsmouth on Tuesday for the first of five away games in a row, facing a Pompey side which has been in decent form in recent weeks in contrast to when the teams were originally set to meet a month ago.
The Hampshire club moved up a place to 20th following Saturday’s 3-0 victory over West Brom, moving above the increasingly relegation-threatened Baggies.
That win stretched their unbeaten run to four games following 1-1 draws at home to local rivals Southampton and at Watford, and a 1-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday.
The Blues’ visit to Fratton Park was initially scheduled prior to the Owls match on Sunday 4th January – ahead of a 4-1 home FA Cup defeat to Arsenal – but was postponed four hours before kick-off due to a frozen pitch.
Pompey were going into that match having been beaten 5-0 at Bristol City and with the squad stretched by an injury crisis which has now abated to some degree.
Reflecting on that contrast, Town manager Kieran McKenna said, speaking following Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Preston: “I could cry about it and say a few things but that isn’t going to be of any benefit, so we have to get ourselves ready.
“We’re facing a good Portsmouth side, Fratton Park on Tuesday night, there’s not many tougher games in the league, to be honest.
“But we have to embrace that challenge, get ourselves ready for it now, recover quickly and get ready to go there and we’ll have to show an awful lot of qualities.”
McKenna doesn’t read too much into positions in the table with most sides in the division fairly well matched.
“Every team’s a threat, there’s very little in it between so many of the teams,” he continued. “There are different stages of the season where teams win games in a row, lose games in a row and they’ve got lots of good players, a good coach, an aggressive style, especially at home, and it’s going to be a good test for us.”
Fans won’t need to be reminded that Tuesday’s game is the first of five on the road with a lunchtime visit to Derby on Saturday followed by back-to-back trips to Wrexham in the FA Cup and Championship and then a Tuesday night visit to the once-again managerless Hornets.
Reflecting on utilising his squad across that run, McKenna added: “We’ll pick the best team to win the games but, of course, you have to take it in the context of the week, so we’ll try and make good decisions for Tuesday.
“We know we have a run of away games now and the perception is that that’s going to be a lot tougher for us, but we have to go and take that challenge on.
“We’ve won three away games in a row earlier in the season [QPR, Swansea and Hull City], so we have to enjoy the challenge now of this tough run of away games get ready to take it on.”
Pompey have picked up two-thirds of their 33 points at Fratton Park this season having won six, drawn four and lost five, the 14th-best home form in the division. Only five teams have scored fewer than their total of 18 goals on their own turf, while eight sides have conceded fewer than the 15 they have shipped so far this season.
Quizzed on whether he was anticipating the game needing a similar roll-up-your-sleeves approach to the recent 3-1 defeat at Sheffield United, McKenna said: “I think there’s a certain element to every game in the Championship that’s that and there’s no away game in the Championship – no home game in the Championship, but especially away from home – where you don’t have to do both sides of the game really well, defensively and attacking.
“You have to fight, win your battles, run, win your duels, all those things, but I think we’re a really good side at that.
“It’s easy because we lost at Sheffield United to pin point this or that, but the reality is that we had three big chances to go 1-0 up and then they scored on a counter from our corner.
“We didn’t execute well enough attacking-wise, we didn’t execute the defending of their counter from our corner.
“We know it’s a given that we’re going to have to go there and battle and scrap well, but we also need to go and execute well on and off the ball.”
On Friday, McKenna was hopeful that one of Marcelino Nunez or Jaden Philogene would be back for Tuesday’s match and he remained confident that that would be the case while still not giving away which would return.
Town go into the game having dropped to fourth at the weekend, two points behind Hull City and seven off leaders Coventry and second-placed Middlesbrough, who are now level on points.
Neither of the top two are in action this midweek but Hull, who like the Blues have currently played a game fewer than the Sky Blues and Boro, host Watford, also on Tuesday evening.
McKenna is unlikely to make wholesale changes despite the disappointing result at the weekend.
Christian Walton will be in goal with the backline of Darnell Furlong, skipper Dara O’Shea, Cedric Kipre and Leif Davis likely to continue.
In central midfield, McKenna will probably opt to leave out Jens Cajuste with either Jack Taylor or new signing Dan Neil, who would be making his debut, coming into the XI alongside Azor Matusiwa, who has now gone 10 games without picking up the 10th booking which would lead to a two-match ban.
Ahead of them, Sindre Walle Egeli or Kasey McAteer could come in wide on the right with Philogene appearing more likely to return than Nunez and taking his place on the left should be be considered fit enough to start. If not, Jack Clarke seems likely to continue.
Anis Mehmeti could again be the number 10, although with Chuba Akpom another option, while one-time Pompey loanee George Hirst seems likely to start as the out-and-out striker.
Ashley Young will again miss out due to his hip problem, while Sammie Szmodics’s involvement will depend on whether he moves to either of Wrexham or Derby County before this evening’s deadline.
When the teams were originally set to meet, Pompey had the likes of Marlon Pack, Colby Bishop and Connor Ogilvie absent through injury but all were in the squad for the victory over West Brom, although striker Bishop was forced off with an ankle knock and has been ruled out of Tuesday’s match.
Despite those returns, the injury list remains lengthy with Josh Knight (back), Josh Murphy (foot), Hayden Matthews (ankle), Mark Kosznovszky (knee), Franco Umeh (hamstring), Florian Bianchini (knee), Conor Shaughnessy, Thomas Waddingham (both quad) and Harvey Blair (hip flexor) all currently sidelined.
On-loan Blues forward Conor Chaplin is unavailable against his parent club, while winger Callum Lang is expected to join Preston today.
Pompey are closing in on adding Paraguayan U21 international winger Gustavo Caballero to their squad ahead of tonight’s 7pm deadline.
Historically, the Blues have won 22 games against Portsmouth (21 in the league), 14 have been draws (13) and Pompey have won 17 (12).
Despite McKenna feeling Fratton Park is a tough away day, Town are unbeaten on their last two visits, a draw last time under the current Blues boss and a 4-0 win under one-time Pompey boss Paul Cook. Prior to that, however, Town had lost three in a row in all competitions.
The teams met at Portman Road in September when goals from Philogene and Hirst saw Town to a comfortable 2-1 victory.
Philogene got the Blues up and running with his fourth goal in two games in the 10th minute and Hirst all but sealed the win four minutes prior to half-time with his third of the season.
Sub Ivan Azon hit the post late on before Pack pulled one back for Pompey in injury time, but Town were not to be denied their first back-to-back league wins since the end of the 2023/24 promotion season.
The teams last met at Fratton Park in League One in December 2022 when Chaplin netted three minutes from time for the Blues against his hometown club as Town came from behind twice to draw 2-2.
Pack’s fourth-minute free-kick gave Pompey the lead, but Cameron Burgess’s second goal of the season levelled seven minutes later.
In the second half, Bishop put the home side back in front very much against the run of play on the hour, before Chaplin denied his local side with whom he is now on loan the win with a rebound from close range.
Town striker Hirst spent the 2021/22 season on loan at Fratton Park, scoring 15 goals in 32 starts and 14 games from the bench.
Blues forward Chaplin joined Pompey as a six-year-old and progressed through their youth ranks into the first team before leaving to join Coventry in January 2019.
He returned to Fratton Park on loan on deadline day and since then has made 19 starts and five sub appearances, scoring his first goal of his second spell at the club at the weekend.
Andre Dozzell, the son of Blues legend Jason, came through the academy ranks at Portman Road and went on to make 78 starts and 15 sub appearances, scoring three goals, before departing for QPR in Paul Cook’s 2021 Demolition Man summer. He joined Pompey in the summer of 2024.
Tuesday’s referee is Thomas Kirk, his assistants Emily Carney and Sam Lewis, and the fourth official Paul Howard.
Cheshire-based Kirk has shown 93 yellow cards and three red in 22 games so far this season.
Kirk is in his fifth season as an EFL referee having risen swiftly through the divisions. Saturday’s match will be his 26th Championship fixture.
In December, Kirk was in charge of the 3-1 defeat at Leicester, booking Taylor, Clarke and one home player.
Two months earlier, he refereed the Blues’ 3-1 East Anglian derby victory over Norwich City at Portman Road, yellow-carding Philogene and three Canaries.
In his only Town game prior to that, the 2-1 win at Morecambe in League One in October 2022, he awarded the Blues two penalties,
On 58, Kyle Edwards was tripped by Farrend Rawson, Town’s first spot-kick in nine months, but Chaplin’s effort was saved.
Six minutes later, the Blues were given another when Kayden Jackson was felled by Jacob Bedeau. This time Lee Evans was successful to claim the points. Evans was the only Town player booked during the game along with six home of the home team.
Walton, Palmer, Button, Furlong, Johnson, Davis, O’Shea (c), Greaves, Kipre, Matusiwa, Cajuste, Neil, Taylor, Nunez, Clarke, Philogene, Walle Egeli, Burns, McAteer, Mehmeti, Szmodics, Akpom, Hirst, Azon.
Photo: TWTD
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