Pompey head up the A34 this weekend to put their unbeaten league record on the line against Michael Appleton's Oxford.
Paul Cook's side have enjoyed four wins and three draws from their opening seven games, with two of those wins having come from three matches on the road.
Cook has implied he will revert to the 4-2-3-1 formation at the Kassam despite a switch to 3-5-2 working well in spells against Barnet.
He told The News: ‘I would start a match with three central defenders if I felt the game would go how they have gone recently. Certainly, at the minute do I feel like that? Not really. But we will start working more and more on it in training.’
The absence of Gary Roberts through an injury picked up in the Barnet win will force at least one change against Oxford, with one possibility that Adam McGurk will drop back to play in the attacking behind the striker and either Jayden Stockley or Matt Tubbs will be asked to lead the line.
Gareth Evans could be another contender to come back into the side after missing out last week.
McGurk is expecting a good game between two teams in decent early-season form. He told The News: 'Oxford have started well so far. From last season you could see they like to pass the ball and get it down.
‘They’ve brought in some good players. They’ve started well so they will be looking to win the game, but so will we. It’ll be a good game and another test, but a different one to what we faced against Barnet.’
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