Portsmouth vs Fleetwood Town; Sky Bet League One
Portsmouth vs Fleetwood Town. Sky Bet League One.
Fratton ParkAttendance18,046.
Portsmouth v Fleetwood preview
Friday 19 October 2018 12:56, UK
Ronan Curtis returns to the Portsmouth squad for the Sky Bet League One leaders' home game against Fleetwood.
Curtis has missed Portsmouth's last two games while on Republic of Ireland duty, first with the under-21s and then with Martin O'Neill's senior squad in the UEFA Nations League.
Danny Rose is set to miss out after a training ground accident that left him with stitches in his face. David Wheeler (ankle) and Andre Green (knee) remain out, although the former hopes to be back in the next fortnight.
Fleetwood boss Joey Barton expects to have more options at Fratton Park than in recent weeks.Ched Evans could return after Barton decided not to aggravate his top scorer's injured shoulder in last weekend's 2-1 win against Shrewsbury.
Conor McAleny and Dean Marney are back in contention after respective hamstring and groin injuries. Fleetwood will check on defenders Tommy Spurr (hip) and James Husband, who has returned from parent club Norwich after treatment on a hamstring injury.
Opta stats
Portsmouth won both of their League One meetings against Fleetwood last season, winning against two different Fleetwood managers (Rosler and Sheridan).
Fleetwood's only previous Football League win at Fratton Park against Portsmouth was in September 2013, a 1-0 victory in League Two.
With a return of 30 points from their opening 13 league games, this is Portsmouth's best start to a season since 2002-03, when they were promoted to the Premier League after earning 32 points from their opening 13 games.
Fleetwood have only been beaten once in their last six away league games (W3 D2), keeping four clean sheets in that time.
No player in the top four tiers of English football has registered more assists in 2018 than Fleetwood's Ashley Hunter (11, tied with Sean McConville).
