Wanderers where soundly beaten at Fratton Park earlier on in the season thanks to a second half hat trick by former England player Teddy Sheringham which ended in a 4-0 win for Harry Redknapp's team so the Trotters know they will have to dig deep to net a consecutive win to follow on from an impressive comeback at Blackburn last weekend.
Anthony Barness has been recalled from his loan spell with West Ham and is expected to make the Bolton starting line up in place of hamstring victim Simon Charlton. 19-year old defender Danny Livesey has been drafted into the Premiership squad to add cover to Sam Allardyce's side. Jay-Jay Okocha is expected to play as he has not yet linked up with Nigeria for the African Cup of Nations whilst Ibrahim Ba is still ineligable to play after not yet agreeing new terms on a contract with the Wanderers. Goalkeeper Kevin Poole is expected to recover from an ankle injury sustained in the midweek defeat by Tranmere Rovers in the FA Cup to take his place on the bench, whilst Florent Laville and Ricardo Gardner are both long term injury victims.
Portsmouth will be able to call upon the servies of Nigerian striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni as like in the case of Okocha he has not yet linked up with Nigeria. Former Manchester City midfielder Eyal Berkovic will once again start for Pompey who will have to do without the services of a number of players through injury as Australian Hayden Foxe is the latest to miss out with a foot injury so he will join Amdy Faye, Tim Sherwood, Vincente Pericard, Steve Stone, Gary O'Neil, Deon Burton, Eddie Howe and Svetoslav Todorov on the treatment table. Jason Roberts will not travel with the side as he completed a move to Wigan Athletic.
PLAYED FOR BOTH
BRIAN BROMLEY
JOHN GREGORY
TREVOR HEBBARD
RUSSELL HOULT
PAUL RITCHIE