Newcastle take on Portsmouth at St James Park on Saturday afternoon, looking to keep up their unbeaten start to the season on Home soil. We spoke to our panel to see if they thought that unbeaten run would continue when Pompey arrive.

Rich

“Portsmouth make the long trip North on Saturday for what is amazingly a home kick-off at the traditional time of 3pm – only the second time we’ve had one this season. Now, unlike ourselves, Portsmouth had a midweek jaunt in the Carling Cup as they went down 1-2 at home to Blackburn and this has to be taken into account when thinking about this upcoming game. We’ve had a week to lick our wounds since the Reading debacle and you would expect nothing less than a big response from the lads at home.

Pompey have been much improved on their travels this term and if they’d come into this match with a free week prior then I’d be a lot more worried than I am. They’re a big, powerful team with some very good footballers in the mix and I wouldn’t fancy our chances against them in the physical battle. However, with only two days to prepare for their trip to St. James’ we have been presented with an excellent opportunity to get another three points on the board at home.

“Fortress St. James’” is a phrase we’ve been hearing a fair bit recently and it’s fair to say that we’ve done better than expected at home, especially after some of the nightmares we witnessed at Gallowgate last season under Norwich’s new gaffer. I would hope to see Alan Smith starting up front in place of Michael Owen, personally, as I’m not at all convinced by the “two small men” combination – Owen has been particularly anonymous recently and a game on the bench might be the kick up the behind he needs. I’ll be aghast if Martins is dropped, however.

I am confident in our ability to score goals against Harry Redknapp’s side, but as always it’s the other end where I’m worried. Portsmouth will be difficult from set-plays and will work tirelessly off the ball and I could see this one being a little bit tighter than some of our more recent home fixtures. That being said I’ll plump for the final outcome being a narrow home win in which a clean sheet eludes us once more.

Predicition: Newcastle United 2-1 Portsmouth.”

Tom

“It’s time to get back to winning ways before ‘them lot’ next week. It’s not going to be easy. Redknapp has moulded Portsmouth into a decent side and we go into the game a place below them, so by rights it should be a close run thing. If we play like we did last week and leave our wingers on the bench, whilst packing the midfield full of central players then we’ll lose. But our home form has been good so far, and if Viduka is back, our attacking options are further strengthened.

There’s no reason why we shouldn’t take all three points our home form and the squad we have available to us means that we’re more than capable of doing this, provided we put the effort in and get the tactics right. Come on, lets get a good confident feeling going into the derby match next week.

At the risk of getting my fingers burnt, I’ll take a 2-1 home win.”

Midds

“After the dismal and negative performance at Reading I’m hoping to see a starting line-up which looks like it’s going to attack Portsmouth. The strong physical pairing of Campbell and Distin will mop up any long balls forward and we must play it through the midfield if we’re going to get any joy. I’m expecting to see Smith return at the expense of Martins to give us a bit of presence upfront with Martins to come on as they tire.

Barton needs to start again but we’re going to need a bit of guile in there too. N’Zogbia should provide the pace and threat from the left. The back four pick themselves and hopefully they’ll be a bit sharper than they were last week. With virtually a full strength squad to pick from, Redknapp will definitely field a strong team. He always keeps it simple and has assembled a solid unit who like knocking it about a bit but can back it up physically. I can see Allardyce countering this by playing Butt and Barton in the centre with Geremi giving Beye a bit of support against Taylor.

As ever, the first goal will be critical and will go a long way to deciding the outcome. With the onus on us to dictate the tempo and Portsmouth having the current top scorer in the league, I can see a few goals being scored. It’ll be tight and a good spectacle to watch and I think it’ll end with honours even with a 2-2. “

Join us again early next week for Post-Match Pompey views.