Portsmouth are strong favourites to take all three points despite Port Vale's home advantage in Saturday's match at Vale Park.
Betting companies* are offering odds of 2.0 on Portsmouth sealing the win, with the visitors sitting first in EFL League One table.
Vale, who are 19th in the league and 26 points behind Pompey, are priced at 3.5 to win. A draw is set at 3.4.
With Will Norris between the sticks, Portsmouth can rely on one of the league's safest pair of hands. He has kept 13 clean sheets in his 28 appearances this season, and no ‘keeper has prevented the opposition scoring more often in EFL League One.
In Vale's net, Connor Ripley has seven clean sheets in 25 games. He has conceded a goal every 66 minutes, 70% more often than the 110 minutes between goals for Norris.
With 43 goals in 28 games so far this season, Pompey are scoring more than average in the league with 1.5 goals per game. And they are conceding fewer than average, letting in 25 goals at a rate of 0.9 per game.
The Valiants, meanwhile, are below average scorers, with 1.1 goals per game, compared to a league average of 1.3. They have conceded 1.5 goals per game.
The home side are in mixed form in EFL League One, with two wins and two draws from their last six games.
With two wins and a draw over that period, the visitors' form is slightly worse – they have taken seven points from 18, compared to Vale's eight.
In the last three years, Vale and Portsmouth have played each other on three occasions. Portsmouth won two of them and they drew once.
Their last meeting was on October 7, when Portsmouth won 2-0 at home.
Vale's last match was on January 6, a 3-3 draw against Charlton Athletic, with Ethan Chislett, Gavin Massey and Uche Ikpeazu getting the goals for the Valiants.
Portsmouth beat Fleetwood Town 1-0 last time out, on January 20, with Abu Kamara on the scoresheet.
Saturday's match will be refereed by Craig Hicks, who has taken charge of five EFL League One games so far this season, issuing two red cards and booking 14 players. He has awarded one penalty.
The last Vale game Hicks refereed was a 1-1 away draw with Lincoln City on November 11. He is yet to oversee a match featuring Portsmouth this season.
* odds are representative of those available across the betting market; for more accurate and up-to-date odds, visit bookmakers' websites.
Port Vale v Portsmouth
EFL League One | Vale Park
Saturday, 27 January 2024 at 3.00pm
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