Portsmouth Football Club News

As the FA Cup holders travelling to a lower league side, Pompey are in a no-win situation. Beat Bristol City and the plaudits will be few – after all that’s what everyone expects. Lose and the critics will have a field day – after all that’s what all neutrals want. But Pompey have plenty of experience playing the ‘Goliath’ role. Last season Ipswich, Plymouth, Preston, West Brom and Cardiff were all defeated en route to lifting the trophy. However, the Blues also know that upsets can happen: their victory at Old Trafford was one of many in last year’s competition. So while David James knows that the Premier League side will be favourites on Tuesday evening, he will certainly not be taking anything for granted. “Last season our only Premier League opposition were Manchester United,” said the 38-year-old keeper. “We were favourites in every other game. “We were on a hiding to nothing in most of those matches, so we’re used to that kind of pressure. “The cup’s all about upsets. We produced one of the biggest ones at Old Trafford last year and we don’t want to be on the other side of that this year. “Anything can happen in cup competitions. Look at Derby beating Manchester United in the Carling Cup last week. “It’s 90 minutes and arguably, anyone can beat anyone. Bristol City will think they’ve got a good chance and it’s up to us to make sure they don’t win. “Last season I don’t think that anyone expected us to get to the final but now we’re holders. “There’s more of an expectation on us this season so we want to go as far as we possibly can. “It’s going to be an interesting match. It’ll be tough at their place but we’re confident that we can get through. “Our cup run last season was fundamentally built on clean sheets and we’ve kept one of those already against Bristol City. “They did alright at our place but I think we should have won the game with the chances we had. “We didn’t - but we didn’t lose, which is the main thing. “The cup is all about being in the hat for the next round and we did that.” James is hoping that a good cup run can provide the catalyst for some positive Premier League results. He said: “Hopefully we can win some games in the cup and that can be reflected in our league matches as well. “Progressing in the cup would give everyone some confidence and put everyone in a much better mood. “There’s a good home draw (against Swansea or Histon) waiting in the fourth round but we’ll just concentrate on getting past Bristol City first.”

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