Gaffer: It’s crucial Portsmouth head into Checkatrade Trophy final on the back of a win

Gaffer for a day Lewis O’Donnell, 23, from Waterlooville gives his views ahead of Pompey’s trip to Shrewsbury.
Gaffer for a day, Lewis O'Donnell, wants to see Gareth Evans start at Shrewbury. Picture: Daniel Chesterton/phcimages.com/PinPep)Gaffer for a day, Lewis O'Donnell, wants to see Gareth Evans start at Shrewbury. Picture: Daniel Chesterton/phcimages.com/PinPep)
Gaffer for a day, Lewis O'Donnell, wants to see Gareth Evans start at Shrewbury. Picture: Daniel Chesterton/phcimages.com/PinPep)

The game is Pompey’s final outing before the Checkatrade Trophy final against Sunderland at Wembley.

And it's crucial that they come away from Shrewsbury with a victory.

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Although, I could see a draw happening, that is not what I want to be the case.

Gaffer for a day, Lewis O'Donnell, wants to see Gareth Evans start at Shrewbury. Picture: Daniel Chesterton/phcimages.com/PinPep)Gaffer for a day, Lewis O'Donnell, wants to see Gareth Evans start at Shrewbury. Picture: Daniel Chesterton/phcimages.com/PinPep)
Gaffer for a day, Lewis O'Donnell, wants to see Gareth Evans start at Shrewbury. Picture: Daniel Chesterton/phcimages.com/PinPep)

If Pompey do get this win, it’ll be great for us heading to Wembley ahead of that game with the Black Cats.

We’ve already beaten Sunderland 3-1 earlier in the season.

We’ll probably go to Wembley next week, win that and that will give us even more confidence going into the end of the season.

Every game is going to be a final in the run-in, with automatic promotion still a possibility.

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You can almost write off first place, with Luton well out of reach, but second is still up for grabs, in my opinion.

If you look at our title-winning season under Paul Cook in League Two, no one thought we were going to get to where we did and win the league title on the final day of the season.

It’s football and anything can happen.

The calf injury to on-loan Birmingham winger Viv Solomon-Otabor is unfortunate for him, and bad news for Pompey given Ronan Curtis’ finger injury.

But when Gareth Evans came on to replace him last week against Scunthorpe, I believe he had quite a big impact, so I’d like to see him handed a start against Shrewsbury, with Jamal Lowe moving out to the left wing.

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I’m going for a 2-1 Pompey win, with the in-form Omar Bogle getting both goals.

Lewis’ predicted Pompey line-up (4-2-3-1)

Craig MacGillivray; Nathan Thompson, Christian Burgess, Matt Clarke, Lee Brown; Ben Close, Tom Naylor; Jamal Lowe, Brett Pitman, Gareth Evans; Omar Bogle.