Coventry City vs Portsmouth predictions, betting tips & match preview

Coventry had a respectable season last term, finishing just outside the play-off spots in 8th place. They had a strong end to the season, winning their last 3 home games but losing and drawing the games before that. They were 5 points off 6th place Barnsley and will hope to improve this season to earn a play-off spot.

Portsmouth had a good season in 2015/16, finishing in the play-off spots with a 6th place finish. It didn’t all go to plan in the play-offs though as they were knocked out in the semi-finals by Plymouth Argyle. They drew the home leg 2-2 before losing away 1-0 to remain in the League Two for another year.

Coventry have lost 11 players to free transfers and signed 4 players to replace them. They’ve also promoted a lot of their youth academy to fill the void. Portsmouth have lost young centre-back Adam Webster to Ipswich in a deal worth around £800k, and lost another 8 players to free transfer. They’ve also brought in 9 players on free transfer, one of them also being an Ipswich centre-back.

Coventry only played 2 pre-season games, winning 1 and losing 1. Their win was against Non-League Nuneaton whilst their loss was against newly relegated Norwich, so the results mean fairly little. Portsmouth won 1, drew 2 and lost 1 of their 4 pre-season games. They also drew their opening league game at home against Carlisle.

We expect Coventry to have enough quality to win this tie, though we don’t think they will keep a clean sheet. We’re predicting Coventry to Win at 6/4 and a correct score of Coventry to Win 2-1 at 17/2.