📏 Form Guide

Portsmouth

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Portsmouth will be wanting a better result here following the 1-2 Championship defeat last time out to Swansea City.

In that match, Portsmouth managed 59% possession and 9 shots on goal with 4 on target. The only player to score for Portsmouth was Jacob Brown (64'). Swansea City got 8 shots on goal with 3 of them on target. Ethan Galbraith (26') and Josh Key (39') scored for Swansea City.

It has been seldom in recent times that Portsmouth have kept a clean sheet. The reality is that Portsmouth have seen their defence breached in 6 of their previous 6 games, leaking 8 goals during that time.

Looking at their past form shows that Portsmouth:

• are unbeaten in the league by Derby County in their previous 2 games.
• have left without a victory over Derby County in their previous 11 league games.
• haven’t won at home in the past 3 league matches.

Derby County

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Following on from a loss in their previous game against Millwall in Championship competition, Derby County and their fans will hope to get a better result this time.

In that match, Derby County managed 49% possession and 14 attempts on goal with 1 of them on target. Millwall had 15 attempts on goal with 4 of them on target. Josh Coburn (43') scored for Millwall.

Looking at their form, and Derby County have been scored against in 5 of their last 6 games, seeing their opponents hit 9 goals overall. In defence, Derby County certainly have room for improvement. That aside, we must now wait to see if the trend might be maintained in this upcoming match.

Looking at the pre-match facts, Derby County:

• haven't won against Portsmouth in games played away from home for the previous 3 league games.
• haven't been beaten by Portsmouth in games played away from home for the previous 5 matches in the league. A very decent away record against them.
• haven’t won away from home in the past 3 matches in the league.

↔️ Head to head

Drawn results are a common outcome in games between the two sides. In their head to head clashes beginning from 29/04/2023, fans have seen 5 of them. That’s an unusually high 83% of games finishing all-square.

A combined sum of 18 goals were scored between them during those clashes, with 7 of them from Pompey and 11 coming from The Rams. That’s an average goals per game figure of 3.

The last league fixture between these clubs was Championship match day 22 on 20/12/2025 when it finished Derby County 1-1 Portsmouth.

On that occasion, Derby County managed 52% possession and 12 attempts on goal with 6 on target.

Portsmouth had 4 attempts on goal with 1 of them on target. Callum Lang (6') and Hayden Matthews (45' Own goal) scored.

The match was refereed by Farai Hallam.

📋 Team News: Portsmouth

In our view, Pompey should employ a 4-2-3-1 system for the game featuring Nicolas Schmid, Terry Devlin, Madiodio Dia, Connor Ogilvie, Zak Swanson, Marlon Pack, Ebou Adams, Gustavo Caballero, Jacob Brown, Conor Chaplin and Colby Bishop.

📋 Team News: Derby County

We believe The Rams might utilise a 4-2-3-1 formation with a starting lineup of Richard O´Donnell, Joe Ward, Dion Sanderson, Matt Clarke, Derry Murkin, David Ozoh, Lewis Travis, Ben Brereton Díaz, Samuel Szmodics, Rhian Brewster and Patrick Agyemang.

✨ Prediction

We’re inclined to think that Derby County may not find it easy to find the net against this Portsmouth lineup who we think might well get the win and a maybe even keep a clean sheet as well.

We therefore think that it’s going to be a 1-0 winning margin for Portsmouth after 90 minutes.

Expecting it to be tight.

Peter Guest, 09:01 16/03/2026