Luton vs Portsmouth Prediction: Pompey to pile more misery on the Hatters

Luton Town's first season back in the Championship following their relegation from the Premier League has been a disaster thus far. They are rooted to the bottom of the table, five points adrift of safety. The Hatters are winless in 13 and their next clash sees them welcome Portsmouth to Kenilworth Road on Saturday (15:00).

Pompey are 17th currently and are nine points clear of the bottom three. They will be hoping to increase the gap against the wailing hosts. Below you will find my Luton vs Portsmouth predictions, supported by the latest team news and match odds.

Luton vs Portsmouth Odds

Luton are winless in their last five home matches in the second tier, and they are 23/20 to come out on top in this contest.

Two of their previous four appearances here have ended in a stalemate, so the draw could be a tempting selection at 23/10 (which has an implied probability of 30.3%).

Portsmouth are 5/2 (28.6%) to claim the three points here, which looks attractive because they have won three games on the spin.

Under 2.5 goals has landed in each of Luton's past six outings in the Championship, and this market is priced at 4/5 for Saturday.

Football Odds

Team News

Luton are missing a number of players at the moment, which is making their survival scrap that much more challenging. Tahith Chong has been out of action since January 6 with a hamstring problem, while Tom Lockyer (ankle), Teden Mengi (groin) and Reece Burke (hip) are also in the treatment room.

Shandon Baptiste suffered another injury blow in Sunday's defeat to rivals Watford, having only played 25 minutes in the second half. He is expected to miss out on Saturday.

With no wins in the last 13 matches, Matt Bloomfield would probably like to tinker with his team but the current absentees make that difficult. The former Wycombe Wanderers boss may be tempted to reunite Carlos Morris and Elijah Adebayo up front as they are in desperate need of victories.

Portsmouth have injury worries of their own. In last week's win over Queens Park Rangers, Rob Atkinson, Isaac Hayden, Zak Swanson and Hayden Matthews were all struggling at points in the game, so each of them will need to be closely monitored ahead of Saturday.

Mark O'Mahony was ruled out before that clash because of an injury in training, so he remains a doubt to feature in Bedfordshire.

The visitors are definitely going to be without Callum Lang, Ibane Bowat, Jacob Farrell and Paddy Lane, and all four are doubts to play a part for the remainder of the campaign.

Conor Shaughnessy and Jordan Williams are continuing to work their way back from issues of their own. Despite these concerns, John Mousinho's side have still won three matches on the bounce, so he may not want to mess with his team too much.

Portsmouth to win @ 5/2 

Portsmouth are in a much better state than their hosts coming into this game, so I am expecting them to extend their winning run to four matches. Luton are a mess right now, which is surprising because they have been one of the most well-organised clubs in England over the past decade.

Something has gone fundamentally wrong considering they were a Premier League club last term. As mentioned already, they are 13 games without a win in the Championship and this is clearly having a psychological effect on the players.

Pompey come here with momentum and that will be more than enough to beat this Hatters team that looks devoid of ideas.

Both teams to score - No @ 1/1

Luton's current run in the Championship is grim reading for their supporters, and it gets worse when you realise that they have failed to score in four of their last five home games.

They are lacking imagination when going forward, while their defence has been far too easy to breach throughout the campaign. As such, I think BTTS - No is worth backing in this clash.

Portsmouth recorded a shutout in their latest away victory at Oxford United and they are facing a Luton side who are struggling to create chances and lacking in confidence.

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