2026-27 Sky Bet Championship: Week Nine – Sunday

Southampton host South Coast rivals, Portsmouth in a massive Sky Bet Championship clash.

Victory would lift Southampton up to 11th in the table, whilst Portsmouth can leapfrog the Saints and go 14th with a win.

 

Team News

Daniel Peretz will start in goal for Southampton after recovering from a glute and groin injury which forced him to withdraw from international duty for Israel.

Cyle Larin (knock) and Caspar Jander (quad) could also be in contention.

Portsmouth will hand late fitness tests to Keshi Anderson (quad), Marko Milovanovic (calf) and Conor Shaughnessy (groin).

Luke Brooke-Smith, Thomas Waddingham (both ankle), Mark Kosznovszky, Connor Ogilvie (both knee), Josh Murphy (groin) and Franco Umeh (hamstring) are sidelined.

 

When is Kick-Off?

Southampton host Portsmouth at St Mary’s Stadium on Sunday 11 October at 12pm BST, live on ITV1, ITVX, Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports+ in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• Southampton are winless in their last five league meetings against Portsmouth (D4, L1).
• Portsmouth have won one of their last five league visits to Southampton (W1, D2, L2).
• James Bree has won more tackles than any other Southampton player in the Championship this season, having won eight tackles in eight appearances.
• No Portsmouth player has produced more shots on target in the Championship this season than Ryan Mavuma-McQueen who has converted seven of his 22 shots onto target.

 

Prediction

Not only unbeaten at home in the league this season with four wins, Southampton are coming into this match off the back of Tonda Eckert receiving a shock suspended ban for his spygate antics which will only fuel their motivation to push on in their promotion bid now.

They however suffered a late defeat at Wrexham just before the international break and are still yet to keep a clean sheet so I expect them to have worked on their defensive focus during the international break.

Portsmouth though are unbeaten in their last three matches and can keep it tight defensively when necessary and have confidence from their recent head-to-head league form against the Saints, whilst their fans will be eager to play their part with spygate taunts.

This clash therefore feels like it is set to be tightly fought and I can see this ending in a point apiece if not a home win.

Prediction: Southampton 2-1 Portsmouth

Result: Southampton 1-0 Portsmouth