RECAP dramatic Pompey promotion battle win at Peterborough

It's a 4-2-3-1 for Pompey matching the home side

Pompey will attack the end attacking their fans in the second half.

Free From Desire has just sent the 4,000 blue army down two sides of London Road into party mode! Kick-off just over five minutes away!

The 4,000 travelling Pompey fans are geed up by a single Pompey mascot who fist pumps he way along two sides of London Road. If Mousinho's boys are as fired up there's only one outcome today!

Be very interesting to see if it's a 4-2-3-2 or 3-5-2 today.

We've gone with this below (semi colons) denote the defence, midfeld, attack:

Pompey: Norris; Swanson, Raggett, Shaughnessy, Sparkes; Pack, Moxon; Kamara, Saydee, Peart-Harris; Bishop.

Could easily be Swanson replacing Rafferty from Tuesday with Sparkes and Kamara wing-backs along with MPH in the 10 behind Saydee and Bishop. Be fascinating to see how it unfolds

It’s Bishop that starts over Yengi with big calls from Mousinho as he makes three changes at Peterborough. Swanson and Sparkes also come in for Rafferty and Lane, with the winger not in the squad along with Lang #Pompey

A lot made about the poor surface today. It's bare in places but not as bad as feared.

The big debate is Colby Bishop v Kusini Yengi when it comes to Pompey’s big promotion showdown tomorrow.

But John Mousinho isn’t dismissing Christian Saydee, when it comes to starting roles as the two Championship contenders collide at London Road.

The fans’ favourite returned to the starting line-up with an impressive showing in the mid-week win over Burton Albion at Fratton Park.

Saydee was making his first start since he was hauled off at half-time in the 3-0 defeat against Leyton Orient in January.

And the 21-year-old followed up his match-winner against Oxford and second-half appearance at Oxford, with a lively performance as he dovetailed with Yengi to good effect.

Now Mousinho has to decide whether to switch formation against the Posh, after the pair worked well together up front against the Brewers.

Saydee has also shown himself to be adept in a deeper role this season, in the event of Pompey reverting to the 4-2-3-1 formation which has served them well this term.

Mousinho has also used Bishop and Yengi on the pitch at the same time on occasions, as he weighs up how to best threaten Darren Ferguson’s side with his attacking options.

He said: ‘We’ve played with the two of them up there.

‘It’s not been something in terms of formation we’ve gone with, either playing that four at the back or even when we’ve gone three at the back, we’ve tended to go with one centre-forward or one in that position.

‘We played Christian against Burton and to all intents and purposes we did sign Christian as a centre-forward, but he’s just morphed into a more effective 10.

‘Against Burton, I thought Christian was excellent. It’s great to get those attacking players on the pitch.

‘Again with Christian his best position or the position we signed him in, was as a nine. So that’s really good competition between the three of them.’

John Mousinho is out for Pompey to showcase their defensive ‘pride’ as they take on League One’s most potent attacking force.

The Blues boss acknowledged his team will have to halt an array of attacking riches, as they collide with Peterborough in this afternoon’s promotion showdown at London Road.

Darren Ferguson’s men are the division’s top scorers so far this season, smashing in 74 league goals and firing in 11 finishes in their past three outings.

Meanwhile, Pompey will go take the division’s best defensive record into the game, letting in 32 goals this term as they search for their 18th league clean sheet of the season against the Posh.

Mousinho said: ‘We’ve built a lot of our success on our defensive work, making sure we keep clean sheets.

‘If we don’t keep clean sheets, obviously don’t concede too many and be a real difficult side to break down. We do try to pride ourselves on that.’

Colby Bishop’s 16 league goals this season isn’t surpassed by any Peterborough players, but Ferguson’s side have seen goals arrive from a number of different sources.

Ephron Mason-Clark, who agreed a £3.5m move to Coventry in January before being loaned back to the Posh, has 13 goals to his name.

Winger Kwame Poku has bagged 11 finishes with Ricky-Jade Jones hitting 11 efforts, Jonson Clarke-Harris (seven) and suspended Hector Kyprianou (seven).

Mousinho added: ‘I certainly think they’re up there (in terms of attacking strength).

‘The front four have probably scored the most goals and the front four they have is also interchangeable, in terms of the forwards they have.

‘We watched the game against Northampton and they brought Jonson Clarke Harris off the bench who is a very good goalscorer at this level. I think Malik Mothersille was the other player to come off the bench.

‘They have good options up top and the wingers are really steady, in terms of Poku and Mason-Clark playing every week.

‘Mason-Clark has gone to Coventry for £3.5m and they have options in behind but Randall plays there most of the time.

‘So they have a very good frontline.

‘Players like that (Mason-Clark) have been excellent and we’ve seen that.

‘We saw that at Fratton Park when we had a really interesting game, but managed to come out on top in that one.

‘I thought Peterborough started that game really well and Jones got the goal early on. They are certainly a really good opponent to be coming up against.’