Graham Turner: Ignore the Pompey hoodoo

Town have been beaten on all nine of their previous visits to the south coast club, finding the net only twice through Steve Cross 29 years ago and now club president Malcolm Starkey in 1961.

But Greenhous Meadow boss Turner has urged his side to thrive on the prospect of facing a stellar name on the League One circuit, with Portsmouth playing in the Premier League just two years ago and winning the FA Cup in 2008.

"Whatever has happened in the past at Fratton Park with few goals scored by this club, it's now we are worried about and there are a number of players capable of scoring goals," said Turner ahead of the first meeting between the clubs for 23 years.

"It adds spice to our games when you look at some of the clubs we are coming up against and therein lies the challenge.

"We feel we are as big as anybody else in there and that's how we have to look at it.

"We have to be capable of going to Fratton Park with confidence that we are good players, we are a good team and we can go and match a big club like Portsmouth."

Turner admits he has sympathy with Pompey supporters after the club's well documented financial problems.

"It's been a terrific club over the years," he said. "You used to have the Roker roar up at Sunderland and one or two other clubs.

"Fratton Park with the Pompey chimes always used to produce a terrific atmosphere and the supporters there have been hard done to.

"There looks to be decent crowds there and they generally create a good atmosphere.

"We have to take the sting out of the game when the time is right and go and impose ourselves on them when the time is right.

"We did it for a period at Sheffield United and did it for a period at Leeds."

Town head south with a clean bill of health, leaving Turner to decide whether to recall defender Darren Jones after he missed the win over Walsall through illness.

Terry Gornell and Sam Winnall are also back fit and battling for starts up front.