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.
REVIEW:
Striker Ricardo Fuller applied a clinical finish to a neat passing move to give Stoke a 1-0 victory at home to Portsmouth.
The Jamaican international exquisitely fired home in the second half to compound more misery on bottom placed Portsmouth, who squandered a chance to take an early lead from the penalty spot. The win moves the Potters back in to 9th place, just three points shy of Aston Villa who currently sit in 5th position.
The opening stages of the game proved to be scrappy with neither side able to keep possession for long.
Pompey's fortunes looked set to change for the better after eight minutes. A reckless challenge by Rory Delap - whose boot was so high it caught Aruna Dindane in the face - prompted referee Kevin Friend to award a penalty. Boateng's spot-kick, weakly struck just to Thomas Sorensen's left, allowed the Stoke keeper to fall on the ball.
Stoke switched Matthew Etherington from his customary left-wing berth to the right, no doubt in the knowledge that the returning Hermann Hreidarsson, 35, had played only an hour of reserve football this season. Portsmouth, however, played with greater fluidity in the first half, with Ashdown doing little more than field the odd long throw from Delap.
Just short of the hour mark the changes the home fans had been demanding so vociferously materialised. Liam Lawrence replaced Salif Diao and James Beattie made way for Mamady Sidibe. They had the desired effect.
The introduction of Lawrence at last saw Stoke play with a modicum of width and poise, and they sealed victory with a goal out of keeping with their previous one-dimensional efforts. A fine move, involving quickfire passes between Etherington, Dean Whitehead and Fuller ended with the latter curling a 18-yard shot beyond the diving Ashdown.