BIG-MATCH FACTS
BLACKBURN ROVERS and Portsmouth go into this evening clash on the back of vital victories on Saturday. Rovers have taken six points out of six from the holiday fixtures courtesy of a 0-2 Boxing Day victory at Middlesbrough, and 0-3 New Years Eve win at Wigan. The scheduled home game against Sunderland on Wednesday night was frozen off. Mark Hughes´ side are therefore on target for a third successive victory and clean sheet.
The Lancashire club have won four of the last five at Ewood Park. The only points dropped in that sequence came from the 0-2 reverse by Everton on 3 December.
Rovers ´doubled´ Portsmouth last season with two 1-0 wins. The first was at Ewood Park on 18 September, when Mark Hughes got his managerial reign off on a winning note with a 75th minute goal from substitute Matt Jansen.
PORTSMOUTH under reinstalled manager Harry Redknapp are enjoying their best spell of the season so far. This will be their sixth game for which Redknapp has selected the side, having bagged seven points from a last possible 12, culminating in Saturday´s 1-0 home win over Fulham. They´re two points from safety. Victory here could lift them out of the relegation zone, and consign Blackburn to a place in the bottom half, depending on other results.
Pompey´s away form since mid-November has been atrocious. Four matches played, four matches lost. Three goals conceded in each of the first three at Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham, and four shipped without reply at Arsenal last Wednesday night. Everton and Sunderland are the only clubs Portsmouth have beaten on the road this season. They are also Pompey´s only victories in 19 away League games, 15 of which were lost.
The only Premiership points Portsmouth have taken off Blackburn was from a 1-2 victory in their first visit to Ewood Park in this League, on 27 March 2004 when Teddy Sheringham and Yakubu were on target. But the most recent clash between these sides was not so happy. The south coast club finished with nine-men after Lomana Lua Lua and Andy Faye were sent off and Rovers won the game 0-1 at Fratton Park in January, thanks to a clever finish from Morten Gamst Pedersen.