Stoke welcome Portsmouth to Britannia Stadium on Sunday hoping to put an end to their last four unbeaten premier league meetings and heap more misery on the league's bottom club.
The troubled South Coast side will look to bounce back from their 3-1 defeat away at Blackburn with a win at Stoke while the home side are in a comfortable ninth place in the table.
The visit of Paul Hart's struggling side will give manager Tony Pulis the perfect opportunity to get his charges back to winning ways, but they will have to overcome a Portsmouth side who picked up seven points from a possible 12 in October.
For Stoke, Abdoulaye Faye will miss the clash through suspension after picking up a red card in the loss to Hull.
Faye was given his marching orders after picking up two yellow cards in that match, and will serve a one-match ban.
Pulis will give a late fitness test to midfielder Glenn Whelan, who suffered a groin strain in the Republic of Ireland's defeat to France in Wednesday's World Cup play-off.
Pompey recorded their first league win over Wolves and followed that up with a draw against Hull before thumping Wigan 4-0.
Hart also oversaw the win over Stoke in the League Cup, which booked a place in the competition's quarter-finals.
Pompey will be boosted by the return of defender Hermann Hreidarsson, who has been out with a hamstring problem.
The defender played 65 minutes of a behind-closed-doors friendly against Cheltenham in midweek and came through unscathed.
The Pompey chief is reluctant to rush the Icelandic international back to the starting line-up though, and the 35-year-old is likely to take a place on the bench.
Hassan Yebda (calf) and top-scorer Aruna Dindane (hamstring) are also doubts.
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