Mick McCarthy made changes to his Ipswich team to face Pompey in the FA Cup - then insisted the players picked should be capable of getting Town through to the next round.

He took the unusual step of naming his starting line-up a day early but said that was certainly not a sign of disrespect either to Pompey or to the competition.

It's a line-up that, for the first time this season, will include ex-Pompey forward Luke Varney.

McCarthy told the East Anglian Daily Times: 'That’s the team and it’s one that is capable of winning that game. The reason I have named it is because I don’t want all that nonsense where they go “I got the team sheet at 2pm and pinned it up on the dressing room wall as motivation”.

‘It’s out there now and if they feel motivated by it, or if they feel I’ve somehow demeaned the competition, which I completely and utterly haven’t, well, good luck to them. If you get that information you can prepare that little bit better.

‘I guess I’ve just given that away, but we’ll be 4-4-2 and that’s what my team is. I just don’t want any nonsense where people say “that inspired us” because they feel my selection somehow disrespected them. That team is not disrespecting anybody — Portsmouth or the FA Cup.’

For his part, Paul Cook has also been quite open about his line-up - indicating that skipper Michael Doyle will be rested.

One player who will - almost certainly - play is Adam Webster, who will be without his defensive partner Matt Clarke, unable to feature as he is an Ipswich player.

Webster told the Pompey website: 'It’ll be a big test for us at the weekend, but it’s one that we’re all looking forward to. We’ve already come up against two Championship sides this season and put in a good performance in both games.

'So we’ll go to Ipswich with no pressure on us and who knows what can happen on the day. They’re doing well in the league this year and fighting for the play-offs, so we know it’s going to be tough. But we fancy our chances and hopefully we can go there and cause a bit of an upset to reach the fourth round.'

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