Sky Sports EFL pundits make Portsmouth relegation prediction with big calls over Derby County and Cardiff City

John Mousinho’s side have been tipped to eke out the wins to remain in English football’s second tier, despite having their safety buffer eroded by back-to-back defeats.

And Sky Sports’ EFL expert, Jobi McAnuff has sounded a relegation warning to Cardiff City, as he backed Derby County to potentially escape dropping down to League One.

It’s shaping up to be a nail-biting survival dogfight at the foot of the table, one McAnuff believes will go to the wire.

But the former Wimbledon man, who was once heavily linked with a move to Fratton Park, believes Pompey will be celebrating come May 3.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ Essential EFL podcast, McAnuff said: ‘Portsmouth, after the Leeds game, I was saying they are safe. That was because they beat Leeds and they’ve been so good at Fratton Park, but then they go and lose to Plymouth - a result you don’t see coming.

‘I just think they’ll have enough there to get what they need between now and the end of the season.

‘I’d probably go up to Hull (involved in the survival fight), they’d be the ones for me and I think they can nick results under Ruben Selles - he’s got them well organised and well drilled. I fancy them to win enough games to be safe.

‘So I’d say it’s from Stoke down for me and I have this horrible nag for my old club Cardiff because you never know what kind of team’s going to turn up.

‘They’d be the ones I’d be worrying about and Derby look the ones who could escape it - but I do think it’ll go down to the last day with probably four or five teams involved and maybe sneaking out of the bottom three.’

McAnuff’s fellow EFL expert, Don Goodman, admitted he thought Derby were dead and buried before they strung three wins together to move them one point from Cardiff City outside of the relegation places.

Goodman highlighted Stoke’s results as a concern for boss Mark Robins in what he anticipates will be an exciting fight for survival.

He said: ‘I thought they (Derby) were doomed, I have to be honest. John went in and they lost their first three without scoring a goal. I think he’d resigned himself to being a League One manager at a club which was stable and ambitious rather than trying to stay in with Blackburn.

‘But what a chance they’ve given themselves, they’re the ones who’ve really thrown the cat among the pigeons.

‘I don’t know what you’re getting with Cardiff. Their results are all clutches, they go unbeaten for a period and then go without a win.

EFL Championship survival battle drama anticipated

‘Stoke are the ones where fate seems to conspiring against them. They can’t get too down about it, but when they went back to Coventry they concede in the 97th minute and it transpires Haji Wright was in an offside position. That’s really bad luck.

‘They beat Blackburn and you think “there you go”, but they then concede as 94th-minute penalty to Millwall, which never was a penalty, and it costs them again. So they must feel fate is conspiring against them, but they have some huge games coming up.

‘We thought when Portsmouth beat Leeds they were done. They were 10 points clear, now they’re four points clear with eight games to go.

‘We thought when Gary Rowett went into Oxford and had that amazing run, they’re clear - but they’ve been sucked backed in. And Hull CIty, though they are getting positive results now, are only three points clear.

‘This battle down at the bottom could be the pick of the three (Championship) battles (autos, play-offs and relegation).’

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