Follow every kick as Portsmouth take on Birmingham City at Fratton Park in the Premier League
on 16-Jan-2010, kick off time 15:00
Portsmouth v Birmingham City Live
A Portsmouth side that continues to lurch from one crisis to another faces the Premier League's current form team when Birmingham City travel to the south coast on Saturday. At least Pompey can bask in the glory of reaching the FA Cup fourth round after their dramatic midweek replay success at Coventry City when Aaron Mokoena headed home a corner in the 120th minute. Pompey had been trailing to a fine strike from Leon Best in the first half before Sky Blues skipper Stephen Wright put through his own net in the 89th minute to send the game into the 30 extra minutes. Off the pitch though, the club could move into administration, have reported debts of £60million and face the threat of a winding-up petition by HM Revenue and Customs. They have also failed to pay their players on time three times this season and a host of players, including Younes Kaboul, David James, Kevin-Prince Boateng and Nadir Belhadj have all been linked with transfers away from Fratton Park this month. Manager Avram Grant does at least have no new injury worries to contend with as he attempts to lift his side off the foot of the table, although Belhadj, Hassan Yebdam, Kanu and Aruna Dindane are all on Africa Cup of Nations duty this month. It will be difficult for Pompey to beat Alex McLeish's side this weekend though, as City's midweek FA Cup third round replay victory against Nottingham Forest extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 14 matches. During that sequence they have only scored 16 goals but have been extremely sound defensively, conceding only eight times and keeping eight clean sheets. The form of the likes of Joe Hart, Scott Dann and Roger Johnson has been paramount to that impressive record, but McLeish will once again be without injured quarter Lee Carsley (ankle), Garry O'Connor (hip), Teemu Tainio and David Murphy (both knee) on Saturday.
Source: DSG
