Gaffer: Hawkins needs to return for Portsmouth

I'm hoping for a good Pompey send off in my last match before heading off to live in Spain.

I will be sad to leave, I will walk away from Fratton Park with a lot of memories, but will be coming back now and again.

Hopefully the atmosphere will be as great as it was against Sunderland before Christmas. I don't know what it is with the club, for big games out they come and the whole ground erupts.

I hope it's the same on New Year's Day, even though it's AFC Wimbledon with probably 400-500 in the away end. Let's give the boys the same atmosphere we had against Sunderland.

There are one or two injury worries at the moment which concern me, particularly in defensive situations, but I would like to think we could come out of it with a 2-0 win.

We had a great result at Fleetwood to win 5-2, albeit a little fortunate with the sending off, but at the end of the day we were ruthless against 10 men and are proving to be like that.

With the team selection, does Brett Pitman start? Is Oli Hawkins back? You wouldn't make too many changes from Fleetwood, although this is a really busy period at the moment.

Anton Walkes came in and did well, which is probably not something you would have said a few weeks ago, and Kenny Jackett has such a good squad now that anyone can slot into that team.

Personally I like Hawkins up front, he hasn't done too much wrong this season and been a great target man, he has grown as a player. If fit, I would bring him in for Pitman.

Also I'd recall Gareth Evans in place of Ben Close, you need his energy levels. I think it was a great piece of management the other day to give him a rest.

It might have looked a bit dodgy to drop him to the bench against Fleetwood, but he will return fresh and should go straight back in against Wimbledon.

 

Pompey (4-2-3-1) MacGillivray, Walkes, Whatmough, Clarke, Haunstrup, Naylor, Ben Thompson, Lowe, Evans, Curtis, Hawkins.