Portsmouth

Portsmouth visit League One high-fliers Wycombe in the FA Cup third round on Friday (19:45 GMT).

• Wycombe Wanderers and Portsmouth have met once before in the FA Cup, during a first round match in November 2016 with the Chairboys winning 2-1.

• Portsmouth have alternated between defeat (3) and victory (3) in their last six away games against Wycombe in all competitions, winning 3-1 in League One last season.

• Wycombe have progressed from just three of their 12 FA Cup third round ties in club history. However, one of these was in their last appearance at this stage, beating Championship side Preston 4-1 in 2020-21.

• Portsmouth haven't reached the FA Cup fourth round since 2019-20 when they beat Fleetwood Town 2-1 at this stage of the competition.

• Portsmouth have progressed from six of their past seven FA Cup third round ties against sides from a lower division, though that sole defeat came during their last such match in a 3-1 defeat to Brighton in 2011.

Portsmouth are poised to confirm the loan arrival of Isaac Hayden from Newcastle United, beating a number of their Championship rivals to the midfielder. (The Portsmouth News, external)

Want more EFL transfer stories? Read Friday's full gossip column.

Andrew Moon
BBC Radio Solent Portsmouth commentator

Image source, Getty Images

Elias Sorensen arrived in the summer with Pompey still reeling from the news that Colby Bishop required heart surgery.

The Dane had a memorable debut scoring away at Leeds United but hasn't found the net since.

His game time became minimal in the past couple of months and he struggled to impact Championship matches.

It's also understood there were personal challenges moving to England.

Pompey will be pleased to recoup the fee they paid for him.

As he'd already appeared for Danish side Esbjerg this campaign he couldn't sign for a third club this season due to FIFA rules.

However, because the Norwegian season runs from March to November he will be able to appear for Valerenga when their campaign gets underway.

Image source, Getty Images

Portsmouth have confirmed the departure of striker Elias Sorensen to Norwegian side Valerenga just five months after his arrival at Fratton Park.

The 25-year-old Danish forward joined Pompey from Esbjerg in August on a three-year contract and made a total of 13 appearances.

He scored one goal which came on his debut against Leeds in August to help his side to a 3-3 draw.

Boss John Mousinho said: "It has been a pleasure working with Eli over the past few months and we wish him all the best for the future.

"It hasn't quite worked out for him here, but that certainly wasn't down to a lack of effort on his part."

Portsmouth striker Elias Sorensen is set to join Norwegian side Valerenga despite only signing for Pompey in the summer. (Tipsbladet - in Danish, external)

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Thursday's gossip here.

Andrew Moon
BBC Radio Solent Portsmouth Commentator

Image source, Portsmouth FC

BBC Radio Solent has learned that Portsmouth striker Elias Sorensen has flown to Norway to complete a move to newly promoted Valerenga.

The 25-year-old only arrived at Fratton Park in the summer, joining from Danish club Esbjerg.

He scored on his Pompey debut away at Leeds on the opening day of the season but that turned out to be his only Blues goal.

The former Denmark Under-21 international has made 13 appearances in total but played just 19 minutes since being taken off at half-time away at Cardiff on 22 October.

It is understood Portsmouth will receive a fee of around £250,000, similar to the amount they paid for him.

Sorensen previously spent five years at Newcastle United and had loan spells at Blackpool and Carlisle United.

Image source, Rex Features

Portsmouth defender Jacob Farrell has suffered a setback in his recovery from a serious knee injury.

The Australian has only been able to make one appearance for Pompey since moving from Australian champions Central Coast Mariners in July.

Farrell was injured in a training session just days after making his debut against Sheffield United in September.

"Jacob has unfortunately had a bit of a setback as he's opened up his MCL again so we're looking at options in terms of what we do," Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent.

"He saw a specialist earlier this week - it's the same injury and we're gutted for Jacob as he was back and close."

The 22-year-old won two A-League Grand Finals in Australia as well as a Premiership title and AFC Cup.

"We don't have a lot of information yet but if we go down the route of surgery we have to make sure when he comes back he's fully fit off the back of it," added Mousinho.

Andrew Moon
BBC Radio Solent commentator

Image source, PA Media

It was a much better performance compared to some we have seen on the road from Portsmouth recently, but still not quite good enough to get anything from their match at Sunderland.

Pompey gave away a sloppy early goal but were more solid after that. Rob Atkinson looked good after coming off the bench for his debut.

They had their chances on the break but were not as clinical as they needed to be in front of goal.

The home form has been excellent but it is now four losses in a row on the road.

Portsmouth cannot rely exclusively on their home form to keep them out of the bottom three.

Image source, Getty Images

Portsmouth manager John Mousinho was happy with an improved showing on the road despite falling to a narrow defeat at Sunderland.

The 1-0 loss at the Stadium of Light was a fourth consecutive one on the road, which has included losing 3-0 at Bristol City and 4-0 at Derby County.

Pompey have only won once away this season - at QPR in October - and have collected seven out of a possible 39 points away from home.

That leaves them only outside the bottom three on goals scored, but Mousinho admits that the performance on Wearside was far better than that at Ashton Gate seven days before.

"It was chalk and cheese from the last away performance, much, much better and a huge amount of improvement but some tiny bits to do to make sure we get there," he told BBC Radio Solent.

"I'm really, really positive off the back of that performance. I thought for large parts, we were really good."

Portsmouth will look to make it back to back wins for the first time this season as they make the trip to the Stadium of Light on Sunday (15:00 GMT).

Pompey began the calendar year with an emphatic 4-0 win over Swansea that saw them climb out of the bottom three.

Sunderland also claimed a big victory over promotion rivals Sheffield United on New Year's Day to move within two points of an automatic promotion spot and five points shy of league leaders Leeds United.

The Black Cats eased to a 3-1 victory in the reverse fixture in August, though they are only one of two sides in the top five to take all three points over the visitors this season (D3).

• Sunderland have won three of their last four league meetings with Portsmouth (L1) and could complete a league double over Pompey for the first time since the 1997-98 campaign.

• Portsmouth have only won one of their last six away games against Sunderland (D2 L3 - including the playoffs), winning 3-1 in October 2020 in League One.

• Sunderland will begin a calendar year with back-to-back home league games for the first time since 2017, when they drew 2-2 with Liverpool and lost 3-1 to Stoke at the Stadium of Light in the Premier League.

• Portsmouth have lost each of their last three away league games, last losing four on the bounce on the road in November 2014 in League Two.

• The away side has won three of the last seven league meetings in the Football League between a team from Tyne and Wear and a side from Hampshire (L4), as many as across the 17 fixtures prior (D4 L10).

Image source, Rex Features

Portsmouth travel to promotion-chasing Sunderland on Sunday afternoon looking to follow-up their impressive 4-0 win at home to Swansea City with another positive result.

Manager John Mousinho spoke to BBC Radio Solent before the game. Here are the main takeaways.

• Mousinho said he was "really pleased" with Pompey's "excellent performance" against Swansea. "We took our chances. We didn't have a boatload of possession but when we did, we were effective. As an overall bounce back from the Bristol City game, that showed a really good mentality."

• Freddie Potts put in his "best performance of the season so far", according to Mousinho. He said: "I was really impressed. Freddie just picked up everything, won all his second balls, won his battles, and then showed a lot of quality. He showed a lot of composure, calmness and athleticism. The challenge for Freddie is to stick with that and stay consistent."

• Zak Swanson has done "very well since he's come back in", according to the Pompey boss. "Zak has taken his opportunity and certainly yesterday I think he was really impressive. There is still plenty of progression in Zak's game - I think that's the most promising thing."

• On the importance of every player chipping in with goals: "I think we've got to make sure we don't have a reliance on one goalscorer. That's probably been Colby [Bishop] for the majority of my time here. Yesterday was really pleasing from that point of view, particularly to get a goal from one of the centre-halves [Ryley Towler]."

• On transfers in January: "No news. We're moving on all of the targets we've looked at as quickly as we possibly can. It's still very early on. There's plenty going on behind the scenes."

• On facing Sunderland: "They've been one of the best sides in the league all year. Really, really impressive."

• Mousinho added: "The pressure is on Sunderland to try and win the game. I think we go with a bit of freedom and really try and upset the apple cart."

Listen to John Mousinho's pre-match press conference on BBC Sounds.

Tom Chappell
Fan writer from Fournilwrittenalloverit

Image source, Rex Features

The pure and unadulterated 4-0 win over Swansea City kicked off Pompey's 2025 in quite some fashion.

John Mousinho's team have proved rather versatile already this season during inclement weather, and this was the case again.

There was very little between the two sides during the opening 20-minute exchanges. Fast-forward a further 10 minutes and Portsmouth were two goals ahead.

Josh Murphy's fifth goal of the season and Pompey's first of the afternoon is the by-product of a delicious Zak Swanson cross - Paddy Lane's endeavour was rewarded just moments later, and the celebration attached demonstrated just how much that meant to him.

Nico Schmid was almost effortlessly equal to a handful of the away side's opportunities and Pompey were home and 'dry' - but also soaked through, at half-time.

One of my criticisms with us, either home or away this season, is the way in which we've come back out and started the second half.

It will surprise no Pompey fan to hear that five of the 11 goals conceded so far at Fratton Park have come immediately after the break, between minutes 45 and 55.

This was different - as was the Coventry game. We came out, foot back on the pedal, remained stoic and relentless and got the all important third. A deserving Ryley Towler guiding Freddie Potts' set-piece delivery home.

The fourth to cap off the perfect day came from a man whose return to the side has formed such a positive correlation with our uptick in form of late.

No one will ever know where Pompey would have been had Colby Bishop's services been available to us from the first kick of a ball back in early August, but I've got a feeling we would be in a much healthier league position than we are now.

It was one of those days where it became almost impossible to choose just one salient performer. Take your pick from any of the aforementioned.

I'll end with something a good friend of mine said to me as we left the ground.

We've beaten a decent and established Championship side in Swansea 4-0 at Fratton Park in difficult conditions, with four different goalscorers. Bad teams don't do that.

Andrew Moon
BBC Radio Solent's Portsmouth commentator

Five games, 13 points and 14 goals. The current run at home has given Portsmouth hope of Championship survival.

A number of clubs have stopped playing out from the back against Portsmouth given how good their press is, but Swansea don't know any other way.

Three of the four goals came from conceding possession in their own half. The wet conditions didn't help them either.

It is a brilliant win but Portsmouth had to ride out some tricky moments, most notably at the start of the second half when a Swansea goal would have changed the complexion of the match.

In my view this win vindicates the decision to rest Lang, Potts and Murphy at Bristol City.

The home form is brilliant, Pompey need to find a way of performing somewhere near this level away from Fratton Park.