PORTSMOUTH V COVENTRY CITY
SATURDAY DECEMBER 3RD AT 3PM
AT FRATTON PARK, PORTSMOUTH, PO4 8RA
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MATCH DETAILS
Kick off at 3pm.
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TRAVEL
Club Coach Departs Ricoh Arena at 11am and costs £19 per person.
By Car
From the west/midlands:
Continue along the M27 eastbound (ignoring the M275 turn off for Portsmouth city centre) on to the A27. At the junction with the A2030 turn right towards Southsea/Fratton. Continue along the A2030 and eventually you will see the ground in front of you.
From the M25:
Continue along the A3 southbound, which becomes the A3(M) and then joins the A27 westbound. At the junction with the A2030 turn left towards Southsea/Fratton. Continue along the A2030 and eventually you will see the ground in front of you.
From the east (Sussex):
Continue along the A27 westbound. At the junction with the A2030 turn left towards Southsea/Fratton. Continue along the A2030 and eventually you will see the ground in front of you.
There is limited parking around Fratton Park.
By Rail:
Once at Fratton Station, exit via the footbridge and turn left onto Goldsmith Avenue. Continue along for approximately half a mile and Frogmore Road is on your left. Fratton Park is situated at the bottom.
More information http://www.footballgroundguide.com/portsmouth/index.htm
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ADMISSION
According to Coventry City , there is no pay on the day for this fixture.
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THE LAST TIME
This is the 28th league and cup game between the two sides. City have won 13 of those matches and drawn 5, scoring goals 39 compared to Portsmouth's 32.
The corresponding fixture last season brought City's only away victory in 2011. Marlon King converted two penalties and Gary McSheffrey scored in a 3-0 victory.
The teams that night were:
City: Westwood, Keogh, Cranie, Hussey, Gunnarsson, Clingan, McSheffrey (Baker 65), Bell, Jutkiewicz (Platt 81), King. Subs Quirke, O'Halloran, O'Donovan, Deegan, McIndoe
Portsmouth Ashdown, Halford, De Laet, Heidarsson, Hogg, Mullins (sent off 68), Kitson, Rocha, Ward (Lawrence 60), Webber (Cotterill 74), Nugent (Dickinson 83). Subs Kanu, Flavhaven, Mokona, Citici.
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MATCH OFFICIALS
The referee currently appointed to take charge of Coventry City's next game, the trip to Portsmouth is Carl Boyeson from East Yorkshire.
Carl is a central heating technician who started refereeing on the Hull Sunday League in 1992 and four years later, he was promoted to the National List of assistant referees in 1996. He was appointed to the Natonal List of referees in 2002.
This will be his 17th game of the season and Mr Boyeson has shown 39 yellow cards and four red.
Last season, Mr Boyeson had three City games, The home win against Watford on April 2nd was his last plus the defeats at home to Preston and away to Barnsley. Previous City matches include: the 0-0 draw at Doncaster Rovers in August 2009, the 0-0 home draw against Charlton in April 2009, the 1-0 defeat at Stoke in November 2006 and the 1-0 defeat at Bradford City in December 2003.
His assistants will be Ryan T.Atkin from London and Nigel Lugg from Surrey . The fourth official will be Richard Martin from Weston-Super-Mare.
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BETTING ODDS
Coventry have enjoyed a week off after not taking part in the midweek Championship action and they return to the south coast where they came unstuck against Brighton last weekend. On a positive note the arrival of Gary Gardner on a short term loan deal from Aston Villa looks to have been an astute piece of business but it hasn’t prevented the bookmakers from pricing up the hosts as 5/6 favourites with Betfred and Stan James. The Sky Blues, who are winless away from home all season, are a best price 4/1 (Victor Chandler) to pick up the three points, something they did manage in this fixture last season.
BET NOW – Both Teams to Score @ Evens
Portsmouth have a relatively solid home record with five wins and two draws to their name at Fratton Park so far this season but they don’t tend to keep many clean sheets with six visiting teams having netted. With no wins and 16 goals conceded on the road Coventry are highly unlikely to manage a shut out on Saturday so odds of evens on both teams scoring looks fair. Elsewhere, Portsmouth to score first could be worth considering with Michael Appleton’s side having netted the opener in five of their last six home encounters and you can get odds of 8/13 (Paddy Power) on that happening again this weekend.