This Week's Opposition: Swansea City

Jake Smith takes a look at Swansea City, Portsmouth's next Championship opponent.

The Blues haven’t met The Swans for a league fixture since April, 2011.

They come face-to-face this weekend in South Wales for the first time since November 2010, when David Nugent and Greg Halford turned things around to secure victory following an early Craig Beattie opener.

Plenty has changed for both sides over the last 13 years and we start with the man in the dugout.

MANAGER

Former Swindon Town and Notts County boss Luke Williams is at the helm at the Swansea.com Stadium.

The 43-year-old arrived on the 5th of January to replace Michael Duff and was selected for his attacking, possession-based style of play.

Williams was once the assistant to now-Southampton manager Russell Martin at Swansea back in 2021 and since his return, he has achieved a win percentage of 36.6 from 41 games.

ONE TO WATCH

22-year-old attacker Myles Peart-Harris, being a former Pompey player and quite a recent one of that, is most certainly the player we’re keeping a close eye on this weekend.

He featured 12 times for the Blues during a half-season loan spell from Brentford to help John Mousinho’s side to the League One title earlier this year and scored on 2 occasions, including in the final day victory away at Lincoln City.

Peart-Harris wears the number 25 shirt for The Swans and has so far notched 1 goal in 14 appearances, predominantly playing on the wing.

TOP SCORER

Welsh forward Liam Cullen has scored more than any other Swansea player so far this season, netting 3 in the league and 1 in their 3-1 Carabao Cup First Round win over Gillingham in August.

The 25-year-old dons squad number 20 and has been at the club since 2007, when he joined the academy at the age of 8.

Slovenian striker Zan Vipotnik has also scored 3 league goals this campaign but is pipped by Cullen as the overall top scorer across all competitions.

CURRENT FORM

Following a return of 3 wins and 2 defeats from their last 5 games, including a 2-1 victory over Derby County at Pride Park in their most recent outing on Wednesday night, Swansea City sit in 11th place with 22 points.

Luke Williams’ side were unfortunate in their previous home fixture last weekend, scoring a 90th minute equaliser at home to table-topping Leeds United before conceding up the other end a minute later, losing by 4 goals to 3.

The Swans are just 5 points adrift of the Play-Off places having played the same amount of games as Middlesbrough in 6th.

Can Pompey kick on from the 3-1 win over Preston North End in their last game, which was now 3 weeks ago? Will this match even take place? Given recent events, most Blues fans would just like to see their side in action this weekend.

Tune in for full coverage of Swansea City vs Portsmouth when Express FM's Pompey Live returns from 2pm on Saturday (November 30th) afternoon. Jake Smith, Henry Deacon and James Wilson make up the panel in South Wales.

Kick-off: 3pm!