Danny Cowley suspects Wycombe feel it is a good time to be playing Pompey - and he wants his patched-up team to prove otherwise.

Wanderers had enough international call-ups to call this weekend's Adams Park clash off but chose not to - while Pompey have had only two international call-ups (Gavin Bazunu and Joe Morrell) so had no option but to play as Wycombe wanted to.

With Wycombe flying high and Pompey finding league wins hard to come by, you can see the appeal of the game to Wycombe chief Gareth Ainsworth. Cowley is all too aware his side will have to be at their best to get anything.

Cowley told the Pompey website: 'We have some challenges and there are a couple away with their countries, so the squad is stretched at the moment. Gavin and Joe have been key players for us — they’re good enough to be a key part of their international teams.

'We’re very lucky that we have Alex Bass, though, and it’s probably the strongest department of our whole squad. He kept a clean sheet on Tuesday night and we have no worries there, while there’s also some depth in midfield.

'So while we’ll certainly miss both Gavin and Joe, when one door closes for you, another one then opens. Wycombe chose to play the game, despite having three call-ups, and maybe they felt with our injuries and two key players away with their countries, it was a good time to play us.

'Perhaps they smelt a bit of blood and so we have to prove that we’re not going to roll over for anyone. It’s five unbeaten for us, with three clean sheets, and so they’ll see a really determined and committed team.'

He added: 'We have a lot of respect for Wycombe and the brilliant job that Gareth Ainsworth has done to take them from League Two to the Championship. They’re now one of the favourites for promotion this season and rightly so — you only have to look at the depth in their squad.

'There are so many attacking options and so we're aware how big the challenge is, but we know that we have to match them physically. Then we have to find the first pass and the second pass, looking to get some rhythm in our performance.'

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