Portsmouth to seek final reassurances before committing to travelling to Shrewsbury following Crewe fiasco

The Blues will discuss the likelihood of Tuesday night’s League One game going ahead one more time before committing to travelling after the Shrews’ home fixture against Morecambe was called off just hours before kick-off on Saturday.

That lunch-time call follows previous conversations with Steve Cotterill’s side in a bid to get a clear picture on the state of the pitch.

Pompey are keen to avoid a similar situation to that which developed on their trip to Crewe on the same day, when match referee Martin Coy called the game off just 60 minutes before the match was due to start because of an unplayable pitch.

That was after a nightmare trip to the Alexandra Stadium on Friday, before returning home – along with 1,500 travelling away supporters – without a ball being kicked.

Like the Crewe match, Shrewsbury’s fixture against Morecambe was called off because of a waterlogged pitch.

There has been further rain in the Shropshire area since as Storm Franklin replaces Storm Eunice.

No additional rainfall is forecast for the rest of today, though, while rain scheduled for tomorrow morning will be quickly replaced by dry and sunny conditions up to kick-off.

Pompey will want to avoid a repeat of Saturday’s incident, with 205 miles and 3hrs 45mins of travel separating both clubs.

However, Blues boss Danny Cowley was hopeful Shrewsbury would give them the final go-ahead to make the trip.

‘We have spoken to Shrewsbury and they don’t anticipate any issues.

‘We’ve had two storms back-to-back and a lot of wind that has come with both storms so we are hopeful that it will go ahead.

‘We’ve seen some pictures and videos from their pitch on Saturday and it looked particularly wet, but I’m told the ground staff have been on it and the wind has helped dry it out.

‘I think we have another call with Shrewsbury at lunch-time before we leave so I'm hopeful.’